Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) versus VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET) Financial Analysis
by Tristan Rich · The Markets DailyVNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET – Get Free Report) and Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM – Get Free Report) are both technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings and risk.
Risk and Volatility
VNET Group has a beta of 0.23, meaning that its share price is 77% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Akamai Technologies has a beta of 0.62, meaning that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Profitability
This table compares VNET Group and Akamai Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| VNET Group | -22.29% | -36.25% | -4.43% |
| Akamai Technologies | 9.51% | 11.32% | 4.47% |
Insider & Institutional Ownership
72.8% of VNET Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.3% of Akamai Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 12.1% of VNET Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of Akamai Technologies shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares VNET Group and Akamai Technologies”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| VNET Group | $1.42 billion | 0.98 | -$36.01 million | ($1.42) | -3.64 |
| Akamai Technologies | $4.21 billion | 3.45 | $452.03 million | $2.78 | 36.29 |
Akamai Technologies has higher revenue and earnings than VNET Group. VNET Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Akamai Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of current ratings for VNET Group and Akamai Technologies, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| VNET Group | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 2.50 |
| Akamai Technologies | 2 | 9 | 13 | 0 | 2.46 |
VNET Group presently has a consensus price target of $16.90, indicating a potential upside of 226.84%. Akamai Technologies has a consensus price target of $150.10, indicating a potential upside of 48.76%. Given VNET Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe VNET Group is more favorable than Akamai Technologies.
Summary
Akamai Technologies beats VNET Group on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About VNET Group
VNET Group, Inc., an investment holding company, provides hosting and related services in China. It offers managed hosting services consisting of managed retail services, such as colocation services that dedicate data center space to house customers' servers and networking equipment, as well as allow customers to lease partial or entire cabinets for their servers; interconnectivity services that allow customers to connect their servers; value-added services, including hybrid IT, bare metal, firewall, server load balancing, data backup and recovery, data center management, server management, and backup server services; cloud services that allow customers to run applications over the internet using IT infrastructure; and VPN Services that extend customers' private networks by setting up connections through the public internet. The company also provides server administration services, such as operating system support and assistance with updates, server monitoring, server backup and restoration, server security evaluation, firewall services, and disaster recovery services. It serves information technology and cloud services, communications and social networking, gaming and entertainment, e-commerce, automobile, financial services, and blue-chip and small-to-mid-sized enterprises; government agencies; individuals; and telecommunication carriers. The company was formerly known as 21Vianet Group, Inc. and changed its name to VNET Group, Inc. in October 2021. VNET Group, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China.
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.