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

Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA)’s stock price dropped 7.3% on Friday after Zacks Research downgraded the stock from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating. The company 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 also recently issued reports on OKTA. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on Okta from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 5th. BTIG Research decreased their price target on shares of Okta from $116.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of Okta from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on shares of Okta from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Okta from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. 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.com, Okta presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $103.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Todd Mckinnon sold 11,263 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 97,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,864,693.83. The trade was a 10.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Brett Tighe sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.07, for a total transaction of $950,700.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 134,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,775,981.95. This represents a 6.93% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 69,365 shares of company stock valued at $5,696,938 in the last three months. 5.68% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Okta News Summary

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 Investors Weigh In On Okta

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Okta by 5.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,803,227 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,815,956,000 after buying an additional 1,074,977 shares during the last quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Okta in the third quarter worth about $7,946,000. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co lifted its position in shares of Okta by 40.1% in the third quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 52,597 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,823,000 after buying an additional 15,058 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of Okta by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,635,572 shares of the company’s stock worth $425,082,000 after acquiring an additional 179,919 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Highland Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Okta during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,475,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.64% of the company’s stock.

Okta Trading Down 7.7%

The firm has a market cap of $12.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.79. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $81.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $86.00.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 4th. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $761.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $749.87 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.78 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. 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, sell-side analysts forecast that Okta, Inc. will post 0.42 EPS for the current year.

Okta announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, January 5th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 6.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Okta Company Profile

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.