Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Saturday morning.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on OKTA. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Okta in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Okta in a research note on Monday, December 1st. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Okta in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of Okta from $105.00 to $85.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Okta from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $90.00 to $125.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. Twenty-five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Okta has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $113.88.

Okta Stock Up 1.7%

Okta stock opened at $88.18 on Friday. Okta has a 52-week low of $75.05 and a 52-week high of $127.57. The firm has a market cap of $15.63 billion, a PE ratio of 80.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.77. The company’s 50 day moving average is $88.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $89.39.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, December 2nd. The company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $742.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.23 million. Okta had a net margin of 6.87% and a return on equity of 3.77%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.67 earnings per share. 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, equities research analysts anticipate that Okta will post 0.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Okta declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, January 5th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy up to 6.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Okta

In other Okta news, insider Eric Robert Kelleher sold 2,409 shares of Okta stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.40, for a total value of $203,319.60. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 11,266 shares in the company, valued at approximately $950,850.40. The trade was a 17.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Todd Mckinnon sold 11,286 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.96, for a total transaction of $1,026,574.56. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 35,409 shares of company stock worth $3,232,373 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 5.68% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of OKTA. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in shares of Okta by 5.3% during the second quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 2,238 shares of the company’s stock worth $224,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Okta by 30.8% during the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 505 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. Simon Quick Advisors LLC grew its position in Okta by 2.5% during the second quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 5,110 shares of the company’s stock worth $511,000 after buying an additional 126 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in shares of Okta by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,251 shares of the company’s stock worth $206,000 after acquiring an additional 135 shares during the period. Finally, Choreo LLC increased its stake in Okta by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 7,239 shares of the company’s stock valued at $664,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.