Wall Street Zen Upgrades Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) to Buy

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen upgraded Okta from “hold” to “buy,” while broader analyst sentiment remains a “Moderate Buy,” with a consensus price target of $200.72.
• Okta’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations, reporting $1.05 in EPS versus $0.96 expected and $805 million in revenue versus $793 million anticipated; revenue rose 10.6% year over year.
• Okta shares opened at $211.49, near their 52-week high of $216.59, while insiders sold roughly $34 million of stock during the last quarter under pre-arranged trading plans.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA - Get Free Report) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a note issued to investors on Sunday, Wall Street Zen reports.

OKTA has been the subject of a number of other reports. Bank of America increased their price target on Okta from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 24th. Evercore restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $240.00 target price on shares of Okta in a research note on Thursday, September 24th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Okta from $200.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of Okta from $195.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, September 24th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Okta from $110.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, August 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Okta currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $200.72.

Okta Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ OKTA opened at $211.49 on Friday. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $165.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $124.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 127.40, a P/E/G ratio of 6.58 and a beta of 0.73. Okta has a 1-year low of $62.66 and a 1-year high of $216.59.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The company reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $805.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $793.00 million. Okta had a return on equity of 4.50% and a net margin of 9.63%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.91 earnings per share. Okta has set its FY 2027 guidance at 3.900-3.940 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 0.920-0.940 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Okta will post 1.92 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Okta news, CFO Brett Tighe sold 41,251 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.44, for a total value of $6,700,812.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 7,693 shares in the company, valued at $1,249,650.92. This trade represents a 84.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Todd McKinnon sold 68,936 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.62, for a total transaction of $10,107,396.32. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 38,484 shares in the company, valued at $5,642,524.08. This trade represents a 64.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 206,702 shares of company stock worth $34,034,508. Corporate insiders own 4.61% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of Okta by 71.9% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,553,091 shares of the company's stock valued at $281,209,000 after acquiring an additional 1,485,963 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its position in shares of Okta by 28.4% during the first quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 2,490,681 shares of the company's stock worth $195,844,000 after purchasing an additional 550,328 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its stake in Okta by 21.9% in the 1st quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,216,588 shares of the company's stock valued at $174,468,000 after purchasing an additional 397,507 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Okta by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,496,896 shares of the company's stock valued at $117,821,000 after purchasing an additional 6,533 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Senvest Management LLC lifted its holdings in Okta by 54.5% in the 1st quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 830,515 shares of the company's stock valued at $65,370,000 after purchasing an additional 292,900 shares in the last quarter. 86.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Okta

Okta, Inc is an identity and access management company that helps organizations secure and manage access to applications, systems, devices and digital services. Its platform is designed to support employees, contractors, partners, customers and other users across cloud-based and on-premises environments.

Okta's products include single sign-on, multifactor authentication, lifecycle management, identity governance, privileged access and identity threat protection. Through its Workforce Identity Cloud and Customer Identity Cloud, the company provides tools for workforce access management and for integrating authentication and authorization capabilities into customer-facing applications.

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