Forensic Analysis · Professional & Commercial Services · as of Nov 9, 2026
Akamai Technologies Inc (AKAM)
A forensic read on Akamai Technologies Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
2.9
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
9.2%
ROE
5.4%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Akamai Technologies Inc earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.9, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
4.9%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 4.9% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2023–FY2025, inside a 1.3-point range. After-tax operating profit was $533M in FY2023 and $425M in FY2025, with operating income at 16.7% of revenue in FY2023, 13.4% in FY2024 and 13.5% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $8.6B in FY2023 to $8.7B in FY2025 (+1%), while the revenue it carried went from $3.8B to $4.2B. $1.2B of the $8.7B base at FY2025 is short-term investments and long-term marketable securities (13.5%) — securities held beside cash, which the base keeps because only cash is subtracted from it; they earn the balance sheet's yield, which is not in the operating profit above, so this rate understates what the operating capital earns.
114% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $800M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 114% of free cash flow, but 53% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow because the business is also funding heavy growth capex (usually debt-financed); the payout itself is covered by operating cash — sustainable as long as that spending is genuine expansion, not upkeep. Counting the $459M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 180%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$4.21B
Revenue Growth YoY+5.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+5.1%
Net Margin10.7%
Free Cash Flow$699.3M
Return on Equity9.2%
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Akamai Technologies Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?