Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) Stock Jumps 7.2% – Time to Buy?

Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA) rose 7.2% on Wednesday. The stock traded as high as $206.78 and last traded at $207.9010. Approximately 1,289,951 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 64% from the average session volume of 3,582,025 shares. The stock had previously closed at $194.02.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Okta from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 24th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on Okta from $110.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 28th. HSBC downgraded shares of Okta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 6th. HC Wainwright initiated coverage on Okta in a research note on Monday, July 6th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their target price on Okta from $200.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have assigned a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $202.38.

Okta Stock Performance

The business has a 50 day moving average price of $182.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $135.98. The company has a market cap of $36.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 126.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.91 and a beta of 0.73.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The company reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.09. Okta had a net margin of 9.63% and a return on equity of 4.50%. The firm had revenue of $805.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $793.00 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.91 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Okta has set its FY 2027 guidance at 3.900-3.940 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 0.920-0.940 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Okta, Inc. will post 1.92 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Eric Kelleher sold 6,395 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.58, for a total value of $1,173,994.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 18,668 shares in the company, valued at $3,427,071.44. This trade represents a 25.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Todd McKinnon sold 48,822 shares of Okta stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.48, for a total transaction of $9,446,080.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 44,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,518,730.92. This represents a 52.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 137,766 shares of company stock valued at $23,927,112 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 4.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Okta

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings 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 worth $281,209,000 after acquiring an additional 1,485,963 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its holdings in shares of Okta by 28.4% during the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 2,490,681 shares of the company’s stock worth $195,844,000 after purchasing an additional 550,328 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its position in Okta by 114.3% during the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 746,009 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,718,000 after purchasing an additional 397,951 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its stake in Okta by 21.9% during the first quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,216,588 shares of the company’s stock worth $174,468,000 after buying an additional 397,507 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of Okta by 641.7% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 392,421 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,887,000 after acquiring an additional 339,515 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.64% of the company’s stock.

About Okta

Okta, Inc provides cloud-based identity and access management solutions for organizations worldwide. Its platform helps businesses securely connect employees, contractors, customers and partners with the applications, systems and services they need to use.

The company’s offerings include single sign-on, multifactor authentication, identity governance, lifecycle management, directory services and privileged access management. Okta also provides customer identity solutions through Auth0, its developer-focused identity platform, which supports authentication and authorization for applications and digital experiences.

Okta serves enterprises, government agencies, small and medium-sized businesses, developers and other organizations across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and additional international markets.