Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) Trading Down 7.3% After Analyst Downgrade

Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA)’s stock price dropped 7.3% during trading on Friday after Zacks Research downgraded the stock from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating. The stock traded as low as $72.89 and last traded at $73.5850. Approximately 838,657 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 74% from the average daily volume of 3,221,271 shares. The stock had previously closed at $79.38.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on OKTA. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Okta from $102.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Berenberg Bank lowered their target price on Okta from $145.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Okta in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $76.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their price target on Okta from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Twenty-six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $103.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Todd Mckinnon sold 11,263 shares of Okta stock in a transaction on Monday, March 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.01, for a total transaction of $912,415.63. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 97,083 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,864,693.83. The trade was a 10.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Larissa Schwartz sold 1,899 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.74, for a total transaction of $172,315.26. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 38,164 shares in the company, valued at $3,463,001.36. This trade represents a 4.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 69,365 shares of company stock valued at $5,696,938. Corporate insiders own 5.68% 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.

Institutional Trading of Okta

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in Okta in the first quarter valued at approximately $225,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its position in Okta by 853.4% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 5,530 shares of the company’s stock worth $582,000 after buying an additional 4,950 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Okta during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $244,000. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 19,127 shares during the period. Finally, Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Okta by 5.3% in the 2nd quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 2,238 shares of the company’s stock valued at $224,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.64% of the company’s stock.

Okta Trading Down 7.7%

The firm has a market capitalization of $12.95 billion, a PE ratio of 55.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.79. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $81.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $86.00.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, March 4th. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $761.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 company 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. On average, analysts predict that Okta, Inc. will post 0.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Okta declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, January 5th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 6.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.