Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Zacks Research

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Okta from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Okta from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Stephens raised shares of Okta from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $97.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Okta in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Finally, DA Davidson set a $110.00 price target on Okta in a research report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $110.57.

Okta Stock Down 2.7%

Shares of OKTA stock opened at $73.23 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $12.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 67.19, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.77. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $86.75 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $88.00. Okta has a 52 week low of $68.77 and a 52 week high of $127.57.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, December 2nd. The company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.06. Okta had a return on equity of 3.77% and a net margin of 6.87%.The company had revenue of $742.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.23 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.67 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. Okta has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.430-3.440 EPS and its Q4 2026 guidance at 0.840-0.850 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Okta will post 0.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Okta declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Monday, January 5th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy up to 6.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Okta

In other news, insider Larissa Schwartz sold 1,899 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.74, for a total transaction of $172,315.26. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 38,164 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,463,001.36. This represents a 4.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Brett Tighe sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.07, for a total transaction of $950,700.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 134,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,775,981.95. The trade was a 6.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 37,245 shares of company stock worth $3,385,624. 5.68% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Okta

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Root Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Okta during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC raised its position 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 buying an additional 264 shares during the period. Promus Capital LLC acquired a new position in Okta in the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Torren Management LLC acquired a new stake in Okta during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Okta during the 3rd quarter worth about $34,000. 86.64% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.