Akamai Shares Soar; Q4 Guidance Tops Street

Akamai (AKAM) shares are sharply higher, getting a lift from a strong forecast for the fourth quarter.

Yesterday afternoon, the content-delivery network company posted Q3 results which topped expectations, with revenue of $206.5 million and profits of 38 cents a share, ahead of the Street at $199.4 million and 35 cents.

On a conference call with the Street, the company also gave bullish Q4 guidance, forecasting revenue of $217 million to $224 million, up about 4% year over year, and ahead of the Street at 214.6 million. AkamaI  sees normalized EPS for the quarter of 39-41 cents; the Street has been at 39 cents.

That implies full year revenue of $838 million to $845 million, up 6% from 2008 at the midpoint, with normalized EPS of $1.60 to $1.62, above the Street at $829 million and $1.56.

The company said it is starting to see positive in customer businesses; in media Akamai noted, it has seen signs of customer volumes increasing with incremental adoption of high-def video.

AKAM today is up $2.95, or 14.6%, to $23.11.