Akamai CEO: ‘I think sometimes we’re underappreciated’

Akamai Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: AKAM) opened 5.0% up in the stock market this morning after reporting market-beating results for its fiscal third-quarter late last night.

CEO Leighton’s remarks on CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’

Despite the gain on Wednesday, AKAM is still down about 10% from its year-to-date high. Commenting on the share price, CEO Tom Leighton said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”:

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I think sometimes we’re underappreciated. But we have a security business that’s widely recognised as the market leader, up 26% year over year. Our CDN business is also widely regarded as the market leader, which generates a lot of cash that we can use to make investments. So, I think it’ll change over time.

Leighton sees massive potential for growth in the Asia Pacific and Japan, which helped Akamai generate more revenue “internationally” in Q3 than it did from the home market.

Q3 financial performance

Akamai said it earned $1.45 per share on an adjusted basis. Its revenue printed at $860 million that represents an annualised growth of 9.0%. In comparison, analysts had called for $1.39 of adjusted EPS on $851.5 million in revenue.

The internet company said its revenue from Edge Technology Group remained unchanged from last year, but Security Technology Group noted a year-over-year increase of 26%.

Future outlook and share buyback

For the full financial year, Akamai now forecasts up to $5.69 of non-GAAP profit per share on $3.439 billion to $3.464 billion in revenue, including up to $1.44 of non-GAAP EPS and $883 million to $908 million in revenue it expects in Q4.

Consensus estimate is for $1.43 of EPS on $895.2 million in revenue this quarter.

Akamai bought back $97 million worth of its stock in the third quarter. While $321 million is still pending to meet the previous authorisation, the U.S. firm still announced another $1.8 billion in share repurchase over the next three years, as per the earnings press release.