Okta Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:OKTA)

Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Traders purchased 16,957 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 52% compared to the typical volume of 11,146 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Okta

In other news, insider Eric Robert Kelleher sold 2,409 shares of Okta stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.40, for a total transaction of $203,319.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 11,266 shares in the company, valued at $950,850.40. This trade represents a 17.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Todd Mckinnon sold 11,286 shares of the company’s 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. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 37,245 shares of company stock worth $3,385,624. Company insiders own 5.68% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Okta

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of OKTA. Root Financial Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Okta during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Okta by 825.0% during the fourth quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 296 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares in the last quarter. Promus Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Okta in the second quarter worth $27,000. Torren Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Okta in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. raised its stake in shares of Okta by 88.3% during the 2nd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 339 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.64% of the company’s stock.

Okta Stock Performance

OKTA traded down $3.14 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $71.15. The company had a trading volume of 887,607 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,693,830. Okta has a 12-month low of $70.91 and a 12-month high of $127.57. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $88.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $88.51. The stock has a market cap of $12.61 billion, a PE ratio of 65.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.77.

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

Okta announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, January 5th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 6.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

OKTA has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wall Street Zen lowered Okta from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 7th. Stephens upgraded Okta from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $97.00 to $120.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Okta in a report on Monday, January 12th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Okta from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Okta from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $90.00 to $125.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. Twenty-five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Okta currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.56.

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.