Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) Cut to Hold at Zacks Research

Zacks Research downgraded shares of Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on OKTA. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $138.00 price target on shares of Okta in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating on shares of Okta in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Susquehanna cut their price objective on Okta from $105.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. BTIG Research reduced their target price on Okta from $116.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $134.00 target price on shares of Okta in a research report on Friday, March 6th. Twenty-six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Okta presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $103.25.

Okta Stock Down 7.7%

Shares of OKTA stock opened at $73.23 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $81.61 and a 200 day moving average of $86.00. 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 price-to-earnings ratio of 55.90, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.79.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 8.05% and a return on equity of 4.18%. The business had revenue of $761.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $749.87 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.78 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue 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. Equities research analysts anticipate that Okta will post 0.42 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Todd Mckinnon sold 11,263 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.01, for a total value of $912,415.63. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 97,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,864,693.83. The trade was a 10.40% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Brett Tighe sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.07, for a total value of $950,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 134,385 shares in the company, valued at $12,775,981.95. The trade was a 6.93% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 69,365 shares of company stock valued at $5,696,938. Insiders own 5.68% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Okta in the 2nd quarter worth about $211,923,000. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in Okta by 28.2% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 6,030,090 shares of the company’s stock valued at $521,422,000 after buying an additional 1,326,051 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in Okta by 113.7% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,067,128 shares of the company’s stock worth $172,895,000 after acquiring an additional 1,099,962 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Okta by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,803,227 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,815,956,000 after acquiring an additional 1,074,977 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. increased its position in shares of Okta by 276.9% during the third quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 1,403,499 shares of the company’s stock worth $128,701,000 after acquiring an additional 1,031,083 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.64% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting 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.