Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to Hold

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded Okta from a "buy" to a "hold," amid a mixed analyst landscape where 29 analysts rate the stock Buy, 10 Hold and 3 Sell.
• Okta beat quarterly expectations with $0.90 EPS (vs. $0.85 expected) and $761M revenue (+11.6% YoY), and set FY2027 EPS guidance of 3.740–3.820 and Q1 2027 guidance of 0.840–0.860.
• The stock opened at $75.78 (52‑week range $62.66–$127.57) with a market cap of $13.4B, and carries a consensus "Moderate Buy" rating with an average price target of $101.95; the company also approved a $1.0B share buyback (up to 6.8% of shares).

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA - Get Free Report) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report released on Saturday.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on OKTA. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Okta from $121.00 to $92.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Okta from $97.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Okta from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $83.00 to $97.00 in a research report on Friday, March 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price objective on shares of Okta from $120.00 to $95.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Okta from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Twenty-nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $101.95.

Okta Price Performance

Okta stock opened at $75.78 on Friday. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $75.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $83.15. The company has a market cap of $13.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.59. Okta has a fifty-two week low of $62.66 and a fifty-two week high of $127.57.

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

Okta announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Monday, January 5th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase up to 6.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Okta

In other Okta news, CRO Jonathan James Addison sold 23,304 shares of Okta stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.79, for a total value of $1,812,818.16. Following the completion of the sale, the executive directly owned 4,364 shares in the company, valued at $339,475.56. The trade was a 84.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Larissa Schwartz sold 6,377 shares of Okta stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.75, for a total transaction of $508,565.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 54,825 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,372,293.75. This trade represents a 10.42% 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 three months, insiders sold 63,843 shares of company stock valued at $5,071,889. Insiders own 5.68% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Okta

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Root Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Okta in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in Okta by 825.0% in the fourth 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 last quarter. SHP Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Okta in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Torren Management LLC acquired a new stake in Okta in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in Okta in the third quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 86.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Okta Company 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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