Bank of Nova Scotia Acquires 3,894 Shares of Okta, Inc. $OKTA

Bank of Nova Scotia grew its holdings in Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA) by 21.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,990 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,894 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia’s holdings in Okta were worth $1,731,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Okta during the 4th quarter valued at about $175,193,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in Okta by 71.9% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,553,091 shares of the company’s stock worth $281,209,000 after acquiring an additional 1,485,963 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in Okta by 28.2% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 6,030,090 shares of the company’s stock worth $521,422,000 after acquiring an additional 1,326,051 shares during the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. increased its stake in Okta by 276.9% during the third quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 1,403,499 shares of the company’s stock worth $128,701,000 after acquiring an additional 1,031,083 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its stake in Okta by 124.3% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,819,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $157,296,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007,915 shares during the last quarter. 86.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Okta news, insider Eric Robert Kelleher sold 3,977 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.10, for a total value of $453,775.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 19,618 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,238,413.80. The trade was a 16.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Shellye L. Archambeau sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.00, for a total transaction of $212,500.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 9,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $781,320. The trade was a 21.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 174,224 shares of company stock valued at $22,534,353 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 4.61% of the company’s stock.

Okta Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of OKTA stock opened at $136.91 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $23.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 99.21, a PEG ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.77. The company’s 50 day moving average is $127.17 and its 200 day moving average is $96.94. Okta, Inc. has a 52-week low of $62.66 and a 52-week high of $157.00.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 28th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $765.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $751.84 million. Okta had a return on equity of 4.15% and a net margin of 8.24%.The business’s revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.86 EPS. Okta has set its FY 2027 guidance at 3.790-3.870 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 0.950-0.970 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Okta, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on OKTA shares. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Okta from $80.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. KeyCorp raised their price target on Okta from $130.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Okta from $93.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Seaport Research Partners downgraded shares of Okta to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Raymond James Financial cut shares of Okta from a “buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Okta presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $121.81.

About Okta

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.