Akamai's (AKAM) most important division is its media content delivery, constituting around 34% of its stock value by our estimates. The high value attributed to this division in our analysis comes from expectations of rapid growth in Akamai's revenue per media customer. As a content delivery company providing web content to its customers, Akamai competes with other players like InterNAP Network Services (INAP), Limelight Networks (LLNW) and Level 3 (LVLT).

Our price estimate for Akamai stands at $37.11, which is roughly in line with market price.

Analyst Upgrades

• Akamai (AKAM) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Las Vegas Sands (LVS) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Aetna (AET) to Outperform from market perform at Leerink.
• Hot Topic (HOTT) to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• Colonial Properties (CLP) upgraded to Outperform from market perform at FBR Capital and to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• Altera (ALTR) to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• American Reprographics (ARC), CarMax (KMX) and American Campus (ACC) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Zebra Tech (ZBRA) to neutral from underweight at JPMorgan.
• IMAX (IMAX) to buy from hold at Canaccord.
• Basic Energy (BAS) to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• Mednax (MD) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• UTi Worldwide (UTIW) to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus.

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (AKAM) received an upgrade at Merriman. According to our Analyst Calls roundup, the rating went from neutral to buy. Is it time to take a chance on this business?

Not much is going on with the stock while I'm writing this. With about ninety minutes to go before the end of the session, I'm seeing a quote of $36.59, a price that represents a gain of 0.6%. In addition, volume isn't impressive. The stock did, however, hit an intraday high of $37.16 earlier in the day.

Analyst Upgrades

• Netflix (NFLX) and Zions Bancorp (ZION) to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Akamai (AKAM) to buy from neutral at Merriman.
• CSX (CSX) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• Nordstrom (JWN) to buy from neutral, WellCare (WCG) to conviction buy from buy and Humana (HUM) to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• E-Commerce China Dangdang (DANG) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• VMware (VMW) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Celanese (CE) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.

Akamai (AKAM) is a content delivery company that delivers web content for its customers and also offers other value-added services like advertising solutions and site acceleration. It competes with other players like InterNAP Network Services, Limelight Networks and Level 3 in this business and delivers close to 20% of global web traffic. Our price estimate for Akamai stands at $37.11, which is roughly 10% below market price.

Akamai stands to gain from current data trends. As Internet usage accelerates, Akamai's fundamental business drivers continue to improve. Notably, mobile data usage is growing at a faster pace than overall data usage, creating a few unique opportunities (and risks) for Akamai.

Analyst Upgrades

• SINA (SINA) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Texas Instruments (TXN), ON Semiconductor (ONNN), Xilinx (XLNX) and Valassis (VCI) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Salesforce.com (CRM) to buy from hold at Canaccord.
• Peet's Coffee (PEET) to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• Invesco Mortgage (IVR) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• BTU International (BTUI) to buy from hold at Wunderlich.
• Coca-Cola Femsa (KOF) to overweight from neutral at HSBC.
• Chipotle (CMG) to market perform from underperform at Morgan Keegan.

Akamai is a content delivery company that delivers web content for its customers besides offering additional value added services like advertising solutions and site acceleration. It competes with other players like InterNAP Network Services, Limelight Networks and Level 3 in this business and delivers close to 20% of global web traffic. Our price estimate for Akamai stands at $37.11, which is about 23% below the current market price.

The company recently released its Q4 2010 earnings, and we have increased our price estimate to $37.11 based on continued fast growth in revenues across all verticals. Our new estimates value the media content delivery segment as the most valuable for Akamai. We previously had e-commerce as the most valuable segment, but the rebound in media revenues has impressed us leading us to change our forecasts and the way we view this business.

We are being bombarded with data from a host of sources, including mobile devices, broadband and cloud computing. Bringing all of this data together will create a new business opportunity.

Ericsson (ERIC), the Swedish network equipment maker, has already foreseen the potential for bringing data together on its fourth generation Long Term Evolution Network (LTE).

Analyst Upgrades

• Citigroup upgraded Colgate (CL) and Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH) to buy from hold.
• Wells Fargo upgraded IDACORP (IDA) to outperform from market perform.
• Union Pacific (UNP) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Goldman upgraded Quicksilver (KWK) to neutral from sell.
• Republic Airways (RJET) was upgraded to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• BofA/Merrill upgraded GAMCO Investors (GBL) to neutral from underperform.
• Senior Housing (SNH) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at JMP Securities.

Level 3 Communications (LVLT) burst higher right out of the gate Thursday morning, as traders cheered the company's new streaming deal with Netflix (NFLX). Level 3 said it has been chosen as a primary content delivery network provider for Netflix, with the company providing support for streaming movies and TV shows. Additionally, Level 3 will store Netflix's entire streaming content library beginning Jan. 1.

This announcement confirms speculation that started swirling earlier in the week, when rumors hit Wall Street that Netflix was looking to ditch its content delivery deal with Akamai Technologies (AKAM). Shares of Akamai slipped about 3% Thursday morning, even though Netflix said earlier it would "continue to engage Akamai as part of our multivendor strategy."

Many stocks had large gains yet the markets were mixed throughout the day. Sometimes the market likes QE2 and sometimes it doesn't. Today is a day where the markets are struggling to to figure out what influence to follow. Gold was above $1400 and oil hit new recent highs, but both gave some back today as the market correlation between the dollar and other markets was not tick for tick.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 11,346.75 -60.09 (-0.53%)
S&P 500 1,213.40 -9.85 (-0.81%)
Nasdaq 2,562.98 -17.07 (-0.66%)

Top Analyst Calls

Investors that have a time horizon longer than a couple of days are likely finding this market to be extremely difficult. The indices have been stuck in a range for months between around 1,040 and 1,130 on the S&P 500. The economic reports have been mixed and have offered very little visibility into what the future may hold. Volume has been extremely anemic in the stock market, which has contributed to the overall impression that no one has much conviction in the direction of equity prices.

While risky, it is times like these that investors may just be better off finding some high beta names that are exhibiting sustained relative strength in an effort to end the year in positive territory.

Analyst Upgrades

• Keefe Bruyette upgraded East West Bancorp (EWBC) to outperform from market perform after the company acquired assets from Washington First International Bank. The firm has a $21 price target for shares.
• Piper Jaffray upgraded Amylin (AMLN) to overweight from neutral, citing valuation and Bydureon's profile. The firm maintains a $26 price target for shares.
• Soleil upgraded MGM Mirage (MGM) to hold from sell, citing signs of stabilization in Vegas and valuation. The firm upped its target for shares to $13 from $11.10.
• T. Rowe Price (TROW) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at FBR Capital.
• JetBlue (JBLU) was upgraded to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• NetEase.com (NTES) was upgraded to buy from hold at Standpoint Research.

Business has been booming for Akamai (AKAM), which provides high-end technologies to deliver large amounts of Internet traffic and video. In the latest quarter, adjusted earnings came to $0.35 per share and revenues were up 14% to $240 million. The company also posted $88 million in cash flows from operations.

On the news, the shares of Akamai are up 16.7% to $38.72 in today's trading. The Street expected earnings of $0.31 per share and revenues of $230 million. However, in light of the spike in the stock price, investors may want to hold off on buying stock right now, and wait until things cool down.

Analyst Upgrades

• Kaufman Bros. upgraded Palm (PALM) to hold from sell after the company was acquired by Hewlett-Packard (HPQ).
• Citigroup upgraded Akamai (AKAM) to buy from hold following the company's better-than-expected Q1 results. The firm raised its target for shares to $44 from $32.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Rockwell Automation (ROK) to hold from sell following the company's Q2 results and guidance. The firm raised its target for shares to $60 from $49.
• First Solar (FSLR) was upgraded to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank and to hold from sell at Soleil.
• Beckman Coulter (BEC) was upgraded to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Barrick Gold (ABX) was upgraded to buy from hold at Jefferies.