Smith Group Asset Management LLC Acquires 32,078 Shares of Okta, Inc. $OKTA

Smith Group Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA) by 9.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 377,105 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 32,078 shares during the period. Smith Group Asset Management LLC owned 0.21% of Okta worth $29,682,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Okta during the 4th quarter worth $175,193,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of Okta by 71.9% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,485,963 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Okta by 28.2% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 6,030,090 shares of the company’s stock valued at $521,422,000 after acquiring an additional 1,326,051 shares during the period. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,031,083 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB grew its holdings in shares of Okta by 124.3% during the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,819,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $157,296,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007,915 shares in the last quarter. 86.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

OKTA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Okta from $82.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Okta from a “buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Okta from $103.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Okta in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Okta from $110.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $121.81.

Okta Stock Performance

Okta stock opened at $136.21 on Wednesday. Okta, Inc. has a 52 week low of $62.66 and a 52 week high of $157.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 98.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.94 and a beta of 0.77. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $126.21 and a 200-day moving average of $96.64.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 28th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.06. Okta had a return on equity of 4.15% and a net margin of 8.24%.The business had revenue of $765.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $751.84 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.86 earnings per share. Okta’s revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Okta has set its FY 2027 guidance at 3.790-3.870 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 0.950-0.970 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Okta, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Eric Robert Kelleher sold 3,977 shares of Okta stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.10, for a total transaction of $453,775.70. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 19,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,238,413.80. The trade was a 16.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Todd Mckinnon sold 68,936 shares of Okta stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.62, for a total transaction of $10,107,396.32. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 38,484 shares in the company, valued at $5,642,524.08. This trade represents a 64.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 174,224 shares of company stock worth $22,534,353 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 4.61% 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.