Sifting through countless of stocks in the IT Services industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies or Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies and Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies and Inc.

International Business Machines Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated solutions and services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates through Software, Consulting, Infrastructure, and Financing segments. The Software segment offers hybrid cloud and AI platforms that allow clients to realize their digital and AI transformations across the applications, data, and environments in which they operate. The Consulting segment delivers strategy and technology services and intelligent operations, providing business transformation, technology implementation, managed services, application modernization, and AI-powered solutions. The Infrastructure segment provides on-premises and cloud-based server, and storage solutions, as well as life-cycle services for hybrid cloud infrastructure deployment. The Financing segment offers client and commercial financing, and facilitates IBM clients’ acquisition of hardware, software, and services. It operates a data streaming platform. The company has strategic partnerships with various companies, including hyperscalers, service providers, global system integrators, and software and hardware vendors that include Adobe, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, Samsung Electronics and SAP, and others. It also has a strategic collaboration with Arm Holdings plc for the development of new dual-architecture hardware that helps enterprises run future AI and data intensive workloads; strategic partnership with three.ws to advance ai-powered 3d agent technology; and collaboration with Lightwell to help strengthen open source software supply chain. Additionally, it offers operational resilience, logistics, and future-ready technology to the UK Ministry of Defence through Team ORION. The company was formerly known as Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. and changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation in 1924. International Business Machines Corporation was incorporated in 1911 and is headquartered in Armonk, New York.

Akamai Technologies, Inc. engages in the provision of security, delivery, and cloud computing solutions in the United States and internationally. It offers security solutions that include web application and application programming interfaces (API) protection solutions, which protect web, API, and mobile app traffic from attacks; Bot & Abuse portfolio, which provides solutions to help customers protect against threats; full account lifecycle protections including the ability to defend against account takeover and opening abuse, adversarial bot protection, protection against credential stuffing, inventory scalping, and hoarding; and solutions designed to stop persistent scrapers from stealing content; API security, which discovers, audits, and monitors API; and microservice and application component protection that analyzes and protects application traffic that moves between application components. The company also offers cloud computing services, which include compute, storage, and cloud native and networking services; and Akamai App Platform, provides ready-to-run templates that address challenges in deploying, managing and scaling Kubernetes clusters at scale. In addition, it offers delivery solutions that include web and mobile performance solutions, which enables dynamic websites and applications, as well as global traffic management, site acceleration, application load balancing, large-scale load testing, and real-user monitoring; and 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. The company has a strategic alliance with Deloitte Canada to help organizations achieve platform-based resilience against AI-accelerated cyberthreats. Akamai Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Latest IT Services and International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies, Inc. Stock News

As of September 2, 2026, International Business Machines Corporation had a $218.3 billion market capitalization, compared to the IT Services median of $1.0 million. International Business Machines Corporation’s stock is NA in 2026, NA in the previous five trading days and down 4.06% in the past year.

Currently, International Business Machines Corporation’s price-earnings ratio is 20.6. International Business Machines Corporation’s trailing 12-month revenue is $69.1 billion with a 15.5% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 1.1%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $12.321 per share for the current fiscal year. International Business Machines Corporation currently has a 2.9% dividend yield.

Currently, Akamai Technologies, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 38.2. Akamai Technologies, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $4.3 billion with a 9.5% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 5.4%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $6.699 per share for the current fiscal year. Akamai Technologies, Inc. does not currently pay a dividend.

How We Compare International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies and Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies and Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

Learn more about A+ Investor here!

Sign Up to Receive a Free Special Report Showing How A+ Grades Can Help You Make Smarter Investment Decisions

International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies and Inc. Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
International Business Machines Corporation	IBM	D
Akamai Technologies, Inc.	AKAM	D

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

International Business Machines Corporation has a Value Score of 28, which is Expensive. Akamai Technologies, Inc. has a Value Score of 25, which is Expensive.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies or Inc. has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to value.

International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies and Inc. Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
International Business Machines Corporation	IBM	A
Akamai Technologies, Inc.	AKAM	A

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

International Business Machines Corporation has a Growth Score of 83, which is Very Strong. Akamai Technologies, Inc. has a Growth Score of 83, which is Very Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Growth Grade breakdown above, both International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies and Inc. have a grade of A. For investors who focus solely on a company’s upward growth, further research should be conducted into both companies’ other financial metrics before deciding whether to invest.

International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies and Inc.’s Momentum Grades

Company	Ticker	Momentum
International Business Machines Corporation	IBM	D
Akamai Technologies, Inc.	AKAM	C

Momentum grades help to uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

International Business Machines Corporation has a Momentum Score of 26, which is Weak. Akamai Technologies, Inc. has a Momentum Score of 47, which is Average.

The Momentum Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies or Inc. has a strong enough Momentum Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to momentum.

Other International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies and Inc. Grades

In addition to Value, Growth and Momentum, A+ Investor also provides grades for Estimate Revisions and Quality.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the ranking of key metrics. Specifically, the quality grade is the percentile rank of the composite of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and F-Score.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies and Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies or Inc. Stock?

Overall, International Business Machines Corporation stock has a Value Score of 28, Growth Score of 83 and Momentum Score of 26.

Akamai Technologies, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 25, Growth Score of 83 and Momentum Score of 47.

Comparing International Business Machines Corporation, Akamai Technologies and Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.