Aberdeen Group plc Acquires 702,785 Shares of Okta, Inc. $OKTA

Key Points

• Aberdeen Group increased its Okta stake by 585.3% in the third quarter, buying 702,785 shares to hold 822,864 shares worth about $172.1 million.
• Analysts were broadly positive: Okta had a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $202.38, with several firms raising their targets.
• Okta beat quarterly estimates, reporting EPS of $1.05 versus $0.96 expected and revenue of $805 million, up 10.6% year over year. Meanwhile, insiders sold 137,766 shares worth about $23.9 million over three months.

Aberdeen Group plc raised its position in Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA - Free Report) by 585.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 822,864 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 702,785 shares during the period. Aberdeen Group plc owned approximately 0.47% of Okta worth $172,069,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of Okta by 71.9% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,553,091 shares of the company's stock valued at $281,209,000 after purchasing an additional 1,485,963 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in Okta by 114.3% during the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 746,009 shares of the company's stock worth $58,718,000 after buying an additional 397,951 shares during the last quarter. Junto Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Okta in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $45,486,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its position in shares of Okta by 192.9% during the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 487,202 shares of the company's stock valued at $101,879,000 after acquiring an additional 320,849 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Senvest Management LLC raised its position in shares of Okta by 54.5% during the 1st quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 830,515 shares of the company's stock valued at $65,370,000 after acquiring an additional 292,900 shares in the last quarter. 86.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on OKTA shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Okta from $126.00 to $203.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 28th. Zacks Research raised shares of Okta from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, October 26th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Okta from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 24th. DA Davidson raised their target price on shares of Okta from $190.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, September 24th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Okta from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, October 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Okta has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $202.38.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Eric Kelleher sold 6,395 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.58, for a total value of $1,173,994.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 18,668 shares in the company, valued at $3,427,071.44. This represents a 25.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Todd McKinnon sold 48,822 shares of Okta stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.48, for a total value of $9,446,080.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 44,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,518,730.92. This represents a 52.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 137,766 shares of company stock valued at $23,927,112 over the last three months. 4.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Okta Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ:OKTA opened at $182.87 on Friday. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $198.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $129.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.97 billion, a PE ratio of 110.16, a PEG ratio of 5.68 and a beta of 0.74. Okta, Inc. has a 1 year low of $62.66 and a 1 year high of $235.00.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The company reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $805.00 million for 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 firm's revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $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. As a group, analysts anticipate that Okta, Inc. will post 1.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Okta Profile

Okta, Inc. provides cloud-based identity and access management services. Its platform helps organizations manage how employees, customers, partners and other users sign in to applications and access digital resources. Okta's products include single sign-on, multifactor authentication, identity governance and user lifecycle management. Through Auth0, which Okta acquired in 2021, the company also offers tools that developers can use to add identity and authentication features to customer-facing applications.

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