Vanguard Group Inc. Sells 1,751,977 Shares of Okta, Inc. $OKTA

Key Points

• Vanguard Group cut its stake in Okta by 8.8%, selling 1,751,977 shares and retaining 18,051,250 shares (about 10.19% of the company) valued at roughly $1.56 billion.
• Okta beat Q results (EPS $0.90 vs. $0.85 estimate; revenue $761M, up 11.6% YoY) and set FY2027 guidance while its board authorized a $1.0 billion share buyback (up to ~6.8% of outstanding shares).
• Analyst sentiment is mixed: the consensus rating is a "Moderate Buy" with an average price target of $101.95, but several firms have recently lowered targets or issued downgrades.

Vanguard Group Inc. cut its stake in shares of Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA - Free Report) by 8.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,051,250 shares of the company's stock after selling 1,751,977 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 10.19% of Okta worth $1,560,892,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in OKTA. Root Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Okta during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Okta by 825.0% during the 4th quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 296 shares of the company's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares during the period. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd bought a new position in shares of Okta during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Okta by 86.9% during the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 415 shares of the company's stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Consulate Inc. bought a new position in shares of Okta during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 86.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director David Schellhase bought 3,712 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 16th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $72.04 per share, for a total transaction of $267,412.48. Following the transaction, the director owned 3,712 shares of the company's stock, valued at $267,412.48. The trade was a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Eric Robert Kelleher sold 16,818 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total value of $1,345,440.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 15,470 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,237,600. This represents a 52.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 63,843 shares of company stock worth $5,071,889. 5.68% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Okta from $121.00 to $92.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Mizuho dropped their price target on Okta from $110.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Okta from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $83.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Citigroup downgraded Okta from a "neutral" rating to a "negative" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price target on Okta from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Twenty-nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $101.95.

Okta Stock Performance

NASDAQ OKTA opened at $73.65 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $13.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.76. Okta, Inc. has a one year low of $62.66 and a one year high of $127.57. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $75.64 and a 200-day moving average price of $83.15.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, March 4th. The company reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $761.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $749.87 million. Okta had a return on equity of 4.18% and a net margin of 8.05%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.78 EPS. Okta has set its FY 2027 guidance at 3.740-3.820 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 0.840-0.860 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Okta, Inc. will post 1.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Okta announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, January 5th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 6.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Okta Profile

Okta, Inc is a publicly traded provider of identity and access management solutions, headquartered in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2009 by Todd McKinnon and Frederic Kerrest, the company completed its initial public offering in April 2017. Under the leadership of McKinnon as chief executive officer and Kerrest as chief operating officer, Okta has grown into a leading vendor in the cybersecurity space, focusing on secure user authentication, single sign-on and lifecycle management for digital identities.

At the core of Okta's offering is the Okta Identity Cloud, a suite of cloud-native services that enable organizations to manage user access across web and mobile applications, on-premises systems and APIs.

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