Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Financial Contrast

Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends and valuation.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Akamai Technologies and Alphabet”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Akamai Technologies	$4.21 billion	4.12	$452.03 million	$2.97	40.18
Alphabet	$402.84 billion	10.37	$132.17 billion	$13.11	26.31

Alphabet has higher revenue and earnings than Akamai Technologies. Alphabet is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Akamai Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Akamai Technologies has a beta of 0.6, indicating that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alphabet has a beta of 1.22, indicating that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

94.3% of Akamai Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.3% of Alphabet shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.3% of Akamai Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.0% of Alphabet shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Akamai Technologies and Alphabet, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Akamai Technologies	3	7	12	0	2.41
Alphabet	0	4	29	5	3.03

Akamai Technologies presently has a consensus target price of $145.29, indicating a potential upside of 21.74%. Alphabet has a consensus target price of $376.78, indicating a potential upside of 9.24%. Given Akamai Technologies’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Akamai Technologies is more favorable than Alphabet.

Profitability

This table compares Akamai Technologies and Alphabet’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Akamai Technologies	10.20%	12.96%	5.56%
Alphabet	37.92%	38.99%	27.41%

Summary

Alphabet beats Akamai Technologies on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Akamai Technologies

Akamai Technologies, Inc. provides cloud computing, security, and content delivery services in the United States and internationally. The company offers cloud solutions to keep infrastructure, websites, applications, application programming interfaces, and users safe from various cyberattacks and online threats while enhancing performance. It also provides web and mobile performance solutions to enable dynamic websites and applications; media delivery solutions, including video streaming and video player services, game and software delivery, broadcast operations, authoritative domain name system, resolution, and data and analytics; and cloud computing services, such as compute, storage, networking, database, and container management services to build, deploy, and secure applications and workloads. In addition, the company offers content delivery solutions; and an array of service and support to assist customers with integrating, configuring, optimizing, and managing its offerings. It sells its solutions through various channel partners. Akamai Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc. offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube. It is also involved in the sale of apps and in-app purchases and digital content in the Google Play and YouTube; and devices, as well as in the provision of YouTube consumer subscription services. The Google Cloud segment offers infrastructure, cybersecurity, databases, analytics, AI, and other services; Google Workspace that include cloud-based communication and collaboration tools for enterprises, such as Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, and Meet; and other services for enterprise customers. The Other Bets segment sells healthcare-related and internet services. The company was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.