Shares of cloud computing name Akamai Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:AKAM) were last seen up 5.6% to trade at $93.09, after a rare double upgrade from Morgan Stanley to "overweight" from "underweight." The firm also lifted its price target to $115 from $83, citing the stock's low valuation and growth prospects.
On the charts, Akamai Technologies stock has yet to fully recover from the 21.7% post-earnings drop that occurred in February, which took it from $98.03 to $76.73. Today's pop has shares breaking above the $92 level, however, which kept a tight lid on gains in mid-November. The equity is also entering positive territory year over year.
Some of today's gains could be attributed to short covering, as short interest represents 8.5% of the stock's available float. It would take shorts over four days to buy back their borrowed shares, at the equity's average pace of trading.
AKAM's typically quiet options pits are seeing much more activity than usual after the bull note, with options volume running at eight times the intraday average pace. The January 16, 2026 97.50-strike call is the most popular contract, followed by the February 95 call, with new positions being bought to open at both.
These options are reasonably priced at the moment, too, per the security's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 35%, which ranks in the low 21st percentile of its annual range.
