Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) Stock

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) had its target price increased by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $200.00 to $245.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price indicates a potential upside of 20.43% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Okta from $165.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 27th. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $219.00 price target on shares of Okta in a research report on Thursday, September 24th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Okta from $165.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 24th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Okta from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Okta from $200.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $200.72.

Okta Stock Performance

Shares of OKTA traded up $1.25 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $203.43. 1,254,993 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,615,455. The stock has a market cap of $35.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 122.68, a PEG ratio of 6.07 and a beta of 0.79. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $159.69 and a 200-day moving average of $120.93. Okta has a 52 week low of $62.66 and a 52 week high of $212.50.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The company reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $805.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $793.00 million. Okta had a return on equity of 4.50% and a net margin of 9.63%.The business’s revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.91 earnings per share. Okta has set its FY 2027 guidance at 3.900-3.940 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 0.920-0.940 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Okta will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Okta news, insider Eric Kelleher sold 6,395 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.58, for a total value of $1,173,994.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 18,668 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,427,071.44. This trade represents a 25.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Todd McKinnon sold 48,822 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.48, for a total value of $9,446,080.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 44,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,518,730.92. This trade represents a 52.58% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 206,702 shares of company stock valued at $34,034,508 in the last ninety days. 4.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Okta

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. bought a new stake in shares of Okta during the fourth quarter worth $3,122,000. Diversify Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Okta in the first quarter worth about $2,077,000. Torque Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Okta by 40.5% in the fourth quarter. Torque Asset Management LLC now owns 289,141 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,002,000 after purchasing an additional 83,337 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank increased its stake in Okta by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 497,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,142,000 after buying an additional 35,700 shares during the period. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in Okta by 74.0% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 33,235 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,874,000 after buying an additional 14,138 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.64% of the company’s stock.

Key Okta News

Here are the key news stories impacting Okta this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts raise targets after Oktane: Citizens JMP upgraded Okta to “Market Outperform” and lifted its price target from $180 to $225, citing AI-agent adoption, stronger demand, cross-selling opportunities and improved go-to-market execution. Citizens JMP raises Okta price target
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley and Bank of America see a larger AI opportunity: Analysts believe rising concerns about AI safety could accelerate demand for Okta’s identity controls and security products. Bank of America also raised its target, arguing that the AI opportunity may extend beyond Okta’s traditional market. Morgan Stanley on Okta AI safety demand
• Positive Sentiment: Product developments reinforce the investment narrative: Okta is building a shared architecture for agent-runtime security and positioning its identity platform to govern what AI agents can access and do. This could create a new growth avenue as companies deploy autonomous software agents. Okta agent runtime security architecture
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation remains a key debate: Comparisons with CrowdStrike highlight Okta’s improving profitability and identity-management leadership, but also its slower growth profile. Investors are weighing whether AI-agent revenue can develop quickly enough to justify the stock’s elevated valuation. CrowdStrike versus Okta comparison
• Negative Sentiment: Bernstein remains cautious: Bernstein downgraded Okta to “Market Perform,” despite raising its price target, as analysts assess whether AI-driven demand can offset concerns about slowing margin expansion. The downgrade could limit upside after the stock’s substantial rally. Bernstein downgrades Okta

About Okta

Okta, Inc is an identity and access management company that helps organizations secure and manage access to applications, systems, devices and digital services. Its platform is designed to support employees, contractors, partners, customers and other users across cloud-based and on-premises environments.

Okta’s products include single sign-on, multifactor authentication, lifecycle management, identity governance, privileged access and identity threat protection. Through its Workforce Identity Cloud and Customer Identity Cloud, the company provides tools for workforce access management and for integrating authentication and authorization capabilities into customer-facing applications.