You know that moment when a stock quietly drops to a scary level… then suddenly rockets because everyone finally sees what you saw months ago? That’s Akamai right now. It kissed $71, got called “dead money” for years-and just woke up with Wall Street screaming “BUY” and price targets up to $134. Here’s why the sleeping giant of the internet is finally roaring.

Akamai Technologies isn’t just delivering content-it’s the invisible force accelerating the internet’s backbone. With over 365,000 servers spanning 135 countries, the company powers everything from streaming marathons to secure API calls, blending CDN roots with cutting-edge AI and cybersecurity. For investors eyeing resilient tech plays, Akamai’s pivot to edge computing feels like spotting the next wave before it crashes.

Operations: Speed Meets Security

Akamai’s Intelligent Edge Platform processes billions of daily requests, routing traffic through its vast network to slash latency and fend off threats in real-time. Security now drives 54% of revenue, up 10% year-over-year in Q3 2025, while cloud services surged 39% to $81 million, fueled by NVIDIA-powered AI inference tools. This isn’t legacy tech-it’s the infrastructure hyperscalers like OpenAI quietly rely on, turning data into instant decisions at the network’s edge.

Financial Snapshot: Profits Accelerating

Q3 2025 delivered $1.055 billion in revenue-a 5% rise-beating estimates with GAAP EPS jumping 155% to $0.97 amid margin expansion to 16%. Cash from operations hit $442 million (42% of revenue), underscoring operational muscle, while full-year guidance now eyes $4.18-$4.20 billion in sales. For institutional portfolios, this signals a maturing growth story; retail traders, it’s proof Akamai’s turning AI hype into hard cash flow.

Key Ratios:

Akamai’s trailing P/E sits at 26.4, a discount to peers amid forward estimates of 11.1, reflecting AI-driven upside. EV/EBITDA clocks in at 12.5, with debt-to-equity at a manageable 1.18 and current ratio of 2.31 -solid for weathering volatility. These metrics paint a picture of efficiency: not flashy like pure AI bets, but reliable for diversified holdings seeking 30% non-GAAP margins.

Stock Momentum: From Laggard to Leader

YTD 2025, AKAM climbed 20% to around $89, outpacing its sector after Q3 beats sparked a 15% weekly surge-now trading near analyst targets of $98. Recent 5% pops tie to edge AI buzz, with shares repurchased at $79.77 averaging $800 million YTD. Retail investors, this rebound rewards patience; institutions, it’s a tactical entry amid broader tech rotation.

The stock price has fallen by more than 38.17% since the IPO.

Dividends and Buybacks: Capital Discipline

Akamai skips dividends, channeling cash into growth-zero yield means zero distractions from reinvestment. Instead, a $2 billion buyback program through 2027 has already retired 10 million shares, boosting EPS by shrinking the float. For yield chasers, look elsewhere; for total return hunters, this is smart allocation in a high-conviction edge play.

Rivals in the Ring: Edge Wars Heat Up

Akamai l eads with unmatched scale against Cloudflare’s developer-friendly zero-trust edge and Fastly’s real-time speed focus-Limelight lags as a niche player. While Cloudflare grabs SMBs with pricing edge, Akamai dominates enterprises via threat intel depth, holding 15–30% web traffic share. The battle? AI at the edge: Akamai’s NVIDIA tie-up positions it to outpace rivals in low-latency inference.

Latest Buzz: AI Tailwinds Ignite Value

November was a good month for Akamai:

• Another bank, HSBC, raised their target all the way to $134 and said the company is rock solid.
• A big bank, Oppenheimer, started covering the stock and said “Buy!” with a $100 price target. They love how much Akamai will grow in AI and cloud security in 2026.
• Right after the last earnings report, the stock jumped 5% because everyone got excited about their new AI computing service.
• There was a short internet glitch in Asia — fixed in no time, no big deal.

Voices from the Edge: X Experts Weigh In

• Oppenheimer’s fresh take: „Growth upside from AI, cloud compute, and security tailwinds driving top-line acceleration.” @AIStockSavvy .
• @whydidthismove nails the rally: „Earnings beat and positive product traction… momentum meeting a friendlier tape.”
• on Akamai Cloud: „3x throughput improvement, 60% less latency, 86% lower cost-great bet.”

Consensus? Undervalued gem in AI infrastructure-buy the dip, hold the surge.

Investment Insights

The company is still growing revenue, but profits are getting squeezed. Net profit margin has dropped to just 12.65% — that’s not great and most smart investors won’t be happy with it. Gross margin is still decent at 59.4%, but it’s sliding, which shows the competition is making life tougher.

Costs are the big problem. Selling, general & admin expenses + research & development now eat up more than 60% of Gross profit. That’s a very high number and leaves little room for error. The good news — Cash flow from the core business is strong and growing fast — real money is coming in the door.

The worrying part — Debt is rising quickly. Debt-to-equity is still okay at 0.95 and the Quick ratio is a safe 1.23, but the portion of long-term debt that has to be paid in the next 12 months is 5 times bigger than Operating profit. That’s a red flag.

Overall investment rating is still positive — the Investment Scoreboard gives it 64 out of 100 (a “good” score). We expect the stock price to grow faster than its historical average of 7.33% per year. So yes, there are risks and margins are shrinking, but the growth story and cash generation still make it interesting for patient investors.

Investment Attractiveness — Live Dynamic Heat Bars

Akamai Technologies Stock Forecast

2025–2029 Price Targets:

Trading and investing tips

At the time of writing, Akamai’s stock has just bounced strongly from its recent low and from the key psychological support level at $71. That sharp rebound makes right now an excellent moment to buy and add shares to your portfolio before the next leg up.

Conclusion

Akamai isn’t the sexy new AI kid on the block-it’s the quiet engineer who actually built the block and now charges rent to every hot startup. The stock can still be bought cheaper than a fancy dinner in Manhattan, yet analysts see it serving $130+ steaks in a couple of years. Buy it, forget it, wake up richer… or keep scrolling and tell your friends in 2027 how you “almost” bought it at $89. Your call.

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Originally published at https://aipt.lt on November 26, 2025.

Is Akamai the Most Underrated AI Stock of 2025? was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

One of the most active and notorious data-stealing ransomware groups, Maze, says it is “officially closed.”

The announcement came as a waffling statement, riddled with spelling mistakes and published on its website on the dark web, which for the past year has published vast troves of stolen internal documents and files from the companies it targeted, including Cognizant, cybersecurity insurance firm Chubb, pharmaceutical giant ExecuPharm, Tesla and SpaceX parts supplier Visser and defense contractor Kimchuk.

Where typical ransomware groups would infect a victim with file-encrypting malware and hold the files for a ransom, Maze gained notoriety for first exfiltrating a victim’s data and threatening to publish the stolen files unless the ransom was paid.

It quickly became the preferred tactic of ransomware groups, which set up websites — often on the dark web — to leak the files it stole if the victim refused to pay up.

Maze initially used exploit kits and spam campaigns to infect its victims, but later began using known security vulnerabilities to specifically target big-name companies. Maze was known to use vulnerable virtual private network (VPN) and remote desktop (RDP) servers to launch targeted attacks against its victim’s network.

Some of the demanded ransoms reached into the millions of dollars. Maze reportedly demanded $6 million from one Georgia-based wire and cable manufacturer, and $15 million from one unnamed organization after the group encrypted its network. But after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March, Maze — as well as other ransomware groups — promised to not target hospitals and medical facilities.

But security experts aren’t celebrating just yet. After all, ransomware gangs are still criminal enterprises, many of which are driven by profit.

A statement by the Maze ransomware group, claiming it has shut down. Screenshot: TechCrunch

“Obviously, Maze’s claims should be taken with a very, very small pinch of salt,” said Brett Callow, a ransomware expert and threat analyst at security firm Emsisoft. “It’s certainly possible that the group feels they have made enough money to be able to close shop and sail off into the sunset. However, it’s also possible — and probably more likely — that they’ve decided to rebrand.”

Callow said the group’s apparent disbanding leaves open questions about the Maze group’s connections and involvement with other groups. “As Maze was an affiliate operation, their partners in crime are unlikely to retire and will instead simply align themselves with another group,” he said.

Maze denied that it was a “cartel” of ransomware groups in its statement, but experts disagree. Steve Ragan, a security researcher at Akamai, said Maze was known to post on its website data from other ransomware, like Ragnar Locker and the LockBit ransomware-for-hire.

“For them to pretend now that there was no team-up or cartel is just plain backwards. Clearly these groups were working together on many levels,” said Ragan.

“The downside to this, and the other significant element, is that nothing will change, Ransomware is still going to be out there,” said Ragan. “Criminals are still targeting open access, exposed RDP [remote desktop protocol] and VPN portals, and still sending malicious emails with malicious attachments in the hope of infecting unsuspecting victims on the internet,” he said.

Jeremy Kennelly at FireEye’s Mandiant threat intelligence unit said that while the Maze brand may be dead, its operators are likely not gone for good.

“We assess with high confidence that many of the individuals and groups that collaborated to enable the Maze ransomware service will likely continue to engage in similar operations — either working to support existing ransomware services or supporting novel operations in the future,” said Kennelly.

Maze, a notorious ransomware group, says it’s shutting down by Zack Whittaker originally published on TechCrunch