AKAM - Akamai may be worth $130/share in a potential takeout - analyst

Akamai Technologies ( NASDAQ: AKAM ) may be worth $130/share in a possible takeover, according to Cowen, after a report earlier Thursday that a PE firm is trying to line up financing for a possible bid. Akamai gained 5%.

A buyer could still see an attractive IRR of ~20% at the $130 price, Cowen analyst Michael Elias, who has an outperform and $164 price target, wrote in a note on Thursday.

"Akamai has been the subject of M&A speculation in the past thus were are not surprised by today's report," Elias wrote. "However, we do believe today's report provides more specifics than prior reports have, suggesting that there may be more credence to this most recent round of speculation."

The StreetInsider item on Thursday comes after Betaville in May said there's speculation that the Akamai ( AKAM ) may be seeing interest from a mystery buyer, according to an "uncooked" alert. The identity of the potential bidder couldn't be learned. Akamai has a market cap of about $14 billion.

Akamai ( AKAM ) short interest is 7.5%.

AKAM is set to report Q2 results on Aug. 9.

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