Thursday, July 12, 2018

Why Okta's Shares Fell 10% in June

What happened

Shares of Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA), the company that offers services to manage and protect digital identities, fell 10.4% in June, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The biggest price drop came early in the month and was probably the result of an analyst downgrading Okta's shares.

Stock chart on black background.

Image source: Getty Images.

So what

Needham & Company lowered its buy rating for Okta's shares to a hold, and also reduced its price target from about $47 to $38 at the beginning of June, which likely led to some negative investor sentiment around that time.�

OKTA ChartImage source:�YCharts.

In what should be an example of being cautious about following the whims of analysts, Needham proceeded to upgrade�Okta's stock back to a buy at the end of the month.

Now what

What's even more odd about the timing of the drop is that at the beginning of June,�Okta reported strong sales growth for its first quarter.

Sales grew by 60% from the year-ago quarter to $83.6 million, and the company's net loss of $26 million was a slight improvement from its $27.7 million loss in the first quarter of 2018.

The company also issued strong guidance for the second quarter, and management said that revenue will be between $84 million and $85 million. That represents about 39% to 41% growth year over year.

Okta's shares have climbed back up about 9% so far in July, which may mean that investors are starting to realize that Okta's first-quarter results warranted a much more positive response than they initially received.

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