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

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

OKTA has been the topic of a number of other research reports. KeyCorp reduced their target price on Okta from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Okta from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Okta from $100.00 to $82.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Okta from $121.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $138.00 price target on shares of Okta in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Twenty-six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Okta has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $103.25.

Okta Trading Down 7.7%

Shares of NASDAQ OKTA opened at $73.23 on Thursday. Okta has a 12 month low of $68.77 and a 12 month high of $127.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.95 billion, a PE ratio of 55.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.79. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $81.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $86.05.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, March 4th. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $761.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $749.87 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.78 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter 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. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Okta will post 0.42 earnings per share 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 purchase up to 6.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Larissa Schwartz sold 1,899 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 7th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $3,463,001.36. This trade represents a 4.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Eric Robert Kelleher sold 16,818 shares of Okta stock in a transaction dated 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 ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 69,365 shares of company stock valued at $5,696,938. 5.68% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Okta

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of OKTA. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its position in Okta by 5.3% during the second quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 2,238 shares of the company’s stock valued at $224,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management raised its stake in Okta by 30.8% during the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 505 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP lifted its holdings in shares of Okta by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,251 shares of the company’s stock valued at $206,000 after buying an additional 135 shares during the period. Choreo LLC boosted its stake in shares of Okta by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 7,239 shares of the company’s stock worth $664,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Utah Retirement Systems boosted its stake in shares of Okta by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Utah Retirement Systems now owns 28,605 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,473,000 after buying an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.64% of the company’s stock.

More Okta News

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.

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.