Okta Inc. (NASDAQ: OKTA) is one of the companies that is seeing investor cheers after its blowout earnings report. Its shares rose nearly 20% on Tuesday’s post-earnings reaction and the stock is still not even close to a 52-week high — and it’s still down by about two-thirds from its 2021 surge peak. This is also happening while the market sell-off has accelerated into a tech correction and as the volatility index (VIX) managed to go above 25 (very oversold) for the first time since December.
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Okta is a leader in identity security, and the CEO called this earnings and revenue beat a breakout quarter for Okta with strength across all parts of the business. Things are looking so good for Okta that the company raised its full-year revenue guidance as being in AI-driven security solutions is continuing to dominate what is otherwise considered a weak macro backdrop.
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Okta has now crossed the $1 billion mark on AWS Marketplace sales since it started listing them in 2020. Okta helps power and secure Amazon’s generative AI assistant called Amazon Q. As Okta expands into AI-powered threat detection and into deeper cloud security integrations, its longer-term prospects for growth are also giving investors hope that growth can continue even in a weaker macro economic backdrop.
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WHAT WALL STREET SAYS
Wall Street analysts have shown quite favorable ratings and price targets on the heels of Okta’s earnings report. As a reminder, no single analyst report should ever be the sole basis to buy or sell a stock.
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Barclays maintained its prior Equal Weight rating, but it did hike the price target to $115 from $105 to reflect management’s higher guidance above the Barclays model.
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Bernstein reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its price target to $132 from $124, noting that Okta’s painful post-COVID headwinds appear to be abating. The firm also sees new guidance delivering higher operating margins as well as a strong product pipeline ahead.
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BTIG reiterated its Buy rating and raised its price target to $123 from $110.
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Canaccord Genuity reiterated its Hold rating, but still raised its target to $100 from $94.
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Citi maintained its Neutral rating but raised its target to $110 from $100.
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Goldman Sachs reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target $123 from $107.
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Jefferies maintained a Hold rating but raised the price target to $110 from $90. The hold is on caution near-term concerns but the target hike is based on a coming inflection point in the next two or three quarters.
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KeyBanc Capital Markets reiterated its Overweight rating and raised its price target to $135 from $125. KeyBanc has greater confidence in its recent upgrade that Okta maintains its leading position as a consolidator and can expand its enterprise offerings.
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Mizuho upgraded Okta’s rating to Outperform from Neutral and raised its price target of $127 from $110. As a leader in the identity management market, Mizuho sees Okta as a beneficiary of newer products which are already making contributions to revenues.
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Oppenheimer reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its price target to $135 from $125, which appears to be the highest price target hike of the post-earnings reports that have been seen so far.
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Piper Sandler maintained its Neutral rating on Okta, but the firm hiked its price target to $110 from $90.
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R.W. Baird reiterated its Outperform and raised its price target to $130 from $115.
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Stifel reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $120 from $115.
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Susquehanna maintained its Neutral rating but still raised its target to $105 from $95.
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Truist Securities maintained its Hold rating and raised its target to $100 from $92.
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Wells Fargo maintained its Equal Weight rating, but it did raise its price target to $100 from $95.
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AND FINALLY…
Okta’s stock was last seen trading up 18% at $102.75 on what was already nearing 5-times normal trading volume mid-day. Its high of the day was $104.53 and its 52-week trading range is $70.57 to $114.50.
Now all strategic investors would have to ponder is how well Okta’s stock gains might be if the market wasn’t in an outright sell-off.
