Arete Research Upgrades Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) to Strong-Buy

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

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on OKTA. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Okta from $100.00 to $82.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Berenberg Bank lowered their target price on Okta from $145.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Okta in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Mizuho lowered their target price on Okta from $110.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Okta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Okta currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $103.08.

Okta Stock Performance

OKTA stock opened at $93.81 on Tuesday. Okta has a 1 year low of $62.66 and a 1 year high of $127.52. The firm has a market cap of $16.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 71.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.59 and a beta of 0.59. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $78.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $82.59.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, March 4th. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.05. Okta had a return on equity of 4.18% and a net margin of 8.05%.The business had revenue of $761.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $749.87 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.78 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, equities research analysts predict that Okta will post 1.61 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Okta news, insider Eric Robert Kelleher sold 2,409 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $192,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 15,470 shares in the company, valued at $1,237,600. This trade represents a 13.47% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Shellye L. Archambeau sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.00, for a total value of $212,500.00. Following the sale, the director owned 9,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $781,320. This trade represents a 21.38% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 70,884 shares of company stock worth $5,625,648 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 4.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of OKTA. Norges Bank bought a new position in Okta during the 4th quarter worth approximately $175,193,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Okta by 71.9% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,553,091 shares of the company’s stock worth $281,209,000 after buying an additional 1,485,963 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Okta by 28.2% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 6,030,090 shares of the company’s stock worth $521,422,000 after buying an additional 1,326,051 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Okta by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,803,227 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,815,956,000 after buying an additional 1,074,977 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. lifted its holdings in Okta by 276.9% during the 3rd quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 1,403,499 shares of the company’s stock worth $128,701,000 after buying an additional 1,031,083 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.64% of the company’s stock.

About Okta

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.