Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) Stock Rating Lowered by Zacks Research

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

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on OKTA. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Okta from $100.00 to $82.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Okta from $125.00 to $105.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded Okta from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on Okta in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $76.00 price target for the company. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price target on Okta from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Twenty-six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Okta presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $103.25.

Okta Stock Down 7.7%

NASDAQ OKTA opened at $73.23 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $81.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $86.05. Okta has a 52 week low of $68.77 and a 52 week high of $127.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.90, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.79.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 4th. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $761.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $749.87 million. Okta had a net margin of 8.05% and a return on equity of 4.18%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.78 earnings per share. Okta has set its FY 2027 guidance at 3.740-3.820 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 0.840-0.860 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Okta will post 0.42 EPS for the current year.

Okta announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, January 5th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 6.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Larissa Schwartz sold 1,899 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.74, for a total value of $172,315.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 38,164 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,463,001.36. This represents a 4.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Eric Robert Kelleher sold 16,818 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total value of $1,345,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 15,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,237,600. The trade was a 52.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 69,365 shares of company stock worth $5,696,938 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 5.68% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Okta in the first quarter worth about $225,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Okta by 853.4% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 5,530 shares of the company’s stock valued at $582,000 after buying an additional 4,950 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Okta during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $244,000. Prudential Financial Inc. grew its holdings in Okta by 229.1% during the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 27,477 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,747,000 after buying an additional 19,127 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in Okta by 5.3% in the 2nd 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 last quarter. 86.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Okta

Here are the key news stories impacting Okta this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 earnings beat, revenue growth and FY‑2027 guidance plus a $1.0B share‑repurchase authorization provide fundamental and capital‑allocation support. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Subscription revenue and identity product adoption showed strength in Q4 (higher deal values), supporting the view that product momentum can drive longer‑term reacceleration. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Macquarie initiated coverage with an Outperform and a $100 target, signaling some buy‑side conviction on Okta’s recovery levers. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Wall Street coverage remains skewed toward Buy/Overweight overall, but price targets are dispersed — a mixed analyst backdrop that can magnify short‑term moves. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Large institutional position changes and active hedge fund flows are increasing attention/volatility; these portfolio moves can amplify intraday swings without changing fundamentals. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Sector‑wide AI competition fears after a leak about Anthropic’s “Claude Mythos” cybersecurity agent triggered a broad selloff in security names, pressuring Okta despite company‑specific news. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Post‑earnings reset: investors are shifting focus from margin/profitability highlights to forward demand metrics (net retention, cRPO, backlog) and several firms trimmed targets — that rotation weighed on the stock. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Significant insider selling disclosed (including CEO Todd McKinnon), plus recent/announced board departures — disclosures that can increase short‑term selling pressure even when filings cite non‑disagreement reasons. Read More.

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.