Benzinga - Shares of Okta Inc (NASDAQ: OKTA) climbed steeply in early trading on Thursday, after the company reported an earnings beat for its fourth quarter.
- Stephens analyst Brian Colley maintained an Equal-Weight rating, while raising the price target from $70 to $84.
- BMO Capital analyst Keith Bachman reiterated an Outperform rating, while raising the price target from $80 to $94.
- RBC Capital Markets analyst Matthew Hedberg reaffirmed an Outperform rating, while raising the price target from $95 to $100.
- Needham analyst Alex Henderson maintained an Overweight rating, while raising the price target from $90 to $100.
- JMP Securities analyst Trevor Walsh reiterated a Market Outperform rating, while raising the price target to from $105 to $110.
Stephens
- The company’s quarterly results exceeded expectations “on both the top and bottom lines,” Colley said in a note. He added, however, that revenue and billings growth decelerated from the previous quarter.
- Management raised the revenue guidance for fiscal 2024 and “issued operating/FCF margin guidance of ~6.5%/10% that was above consensus at ~3%/8%,” the analyst wrote. “Overall, we are encouraged by signs of better execution and an improving profitability/FCF outlook and believe FY24 top-line guidance appears de-risked,” he added.
- “We are encouraged that Okta delivered upside to all material January quarter metrics including revenue, CRPO, and FCF compared with our/consensus estimates,” Bachman said.
- “While we don’t think the solid quarter and guide will alleviate investors’ focus on the competitive landscape, we nevertheless think concerns around both execution and durability have been reduced,” he added.
- Okta’s results were solid, better than expected and included strong profitability, Hedberg said.
- “While macros remained uneven, results benefited from success with large deals, improving sales execution and a strong cross-sell,” he added. “FY/24 revenue guidance moved higher in absolute terms, though looks conservative as we see upside as likely with a potential to re-accelerate growth in FY/25.”
- “Continued improvement in GTM execution led to the beat while upside to margins and profitability also led to record Operating profit, EPS and FCF all ahead of Street as Okta shifts focus to profitable growth,” Henderson wrote in a note.
- “We expect execution to continue improving in FY24 as the rejuvenated, unified sales force ramps and improves productivity,” he added.
- “Okta finished FY23 on a high note, especially given the challenges throughout 2022, specifically, the internal security incident from last spring and the integration difficulties that emerged from the Auth0 acquisition,” Walsh said.
- Referring to the guidance for fiscal 2024, the analyst mentioned that the “goals are all attainable even in a more challenging macroeconomic environment, which the leadership team does not see improving in the near term.”
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