This stock is moving away from IT and into AI and is breaking out. How to capture gains with options
Akamai (AKAM) is emerging as an upcoming AI beneficiary with a business transformation that is materially reshaping its long-term growth trajectory. Historically known as a content-delivery (CDN) provider, Akamai has recently repositioned itself as an edge-native cloud and AI compute platform, leveraging its global infrastructure footprint to offer lower-latency, lower-cost inference workloads. This transition is finally showing up in the numbers as compute revenue grew nearly 40% year over year and operating margins have expanded despite elevated AI investment. With management successfully moving away from low-margin delivery toward higher-margin AI and security — Akamai enters 2026 with meaningful upside optionality as AI inference moves to the edge. Trade timing & outlook AKAM breaking out of its $84 resistance and recent retest as support coincides with outperformance versus the S & P 500, suggesting an attractive risk-to-reward entry at these levels. The stock’s ability to hold support despite market volatility reflects growing confidence in its AI-cloud pivot and targets $102 to the upside. Fundamentals AKAM trades at a 50% discount to cloud and cybersecurity peers, despite strengthening profitability and an improving revenue mix: Forward PE ratio: 11.43x vs. industry average 22.53x Expected EPS growth: 7.21% vs. industry average 10.99% Expected revenue growth: 5.62% vs. industry average 9.35% Net margins: 12.26% vs. industry average 9.08% Bullish thesis Transformation to high-margin AI/Cloud: Compute revenue grew ~39% YoY in Q3 2025 as NVIDIA-powered Akamai Inference Cloud begin scaling. Margin expansion: Operating margin reached 31%, demonstrating the economic benefit of shifting toward security and compute. Security cross-sell: Zero-Trust, API Security, and application-protection products continue to grow at a double-digit pace. Attractive valuation: As security and compute approaches 60% of total revenue, AKAM’s low-teens earning multiple becomes compelling relative to faster-growing. Edge-inference advantage: If even a modest portion of inference workloads migrate away from AWS/Azure, Akamai’s edge cloud footprint represents a meaningful TAM expansion. Options trade With an IV rank of 10%, options remain attractively priced for bullish directional exposure. I’m buying the Jan 16, 2026 $85/$95 Call Vertical @ $3.30 Debit. This entails: Buy to Open the Jan 16, 2026 $85 call @ $3.90 Sell to Open the Jan 16, 2026 $95 call @ $0.60 Max Reward: $670 per contract if AKAM closes above $95 at expiration. Max Risk: $330 per contract if AKAM closes below $85 at expiration. Breakeven @ $88.30 View this Trade with Updated Prices at OptionsPlay . This defined-risk structure targets upside participation in AKAM’s AI-cloud transformation while limiting downside as the company continues to re-rate toward peers benefiting from AI-driven infrastructure demand. DISCLOSURES: Zhang has a position in AKAM. All opinions expressed by the CNBC Pro contributors are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBC UNIVERSAL, their parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, internet or another medium. THE ABOVE CONTENT IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY . THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSITUTE FINANCIAL, INVESTMENT, TAX OR LEGAL ADVICE OR A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY ANY SECURITY OR OTHER FINANCIAL ASSET. THE CONTENT IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND DOES NOT REFLECT ANY INDIVIDUAL’S UNIQUE PERSONAL CIRCUMSTANCES. THE ABOVE CONTENT MIGHT NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUR PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES. BEFORE MAKING ANY FINANCIAL DECISIONS, YOU SHOULD STRONGLY CONSIDER SEEKING ADVICE FROM YOUR OWN FINANCIAL OR INVESTMENT ADVISOR. Click here for the full disclaimer.
<
