Okta Inc. (OKTA)

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Okta (OKTA) Beat Earnings and Boosted Its Outlook. The Stock Is Still Falling
By: Barron's | September 1, 2021

Shares of Okta were down in late trading Wednesday despite a better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter report from the cloud identity provider. The company also issued a bullish forecast for the remainder of the year.

Even so, shares of Okta (ticker: OKTA) were down 2.4% in the extended session.

Okta reported a second-quarter loss of $276.9 million, or $1.83 a share, compared with a net loss of $60.1 million, or 48 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted for stock compensation, among other items, Okta reported a loss of 11 cents a share. Revenue surged 57% to $315.5 million.

Analysts had expected an adjusted loss of 35 cents a share on revenue of $295.5 million.

For Okta, economic reopenings around the world have created short-term uncertainty, but CEO Todd McKinnon told Barron’s Wednesday that the overall trend toward remote work will continue to benefit the company.

While Covid-19 has created uncertainty among many businesses, more companies have had to secure home offices where people use cloud applications that aren’t in a company’s own data centers. “It’s this tale of two factors,” McKinnon says.

Okta has yet to appoint a new CFO following the June 1 resignation of Mike Kourey. At least one Wall Street analyst had suggested an announcement could come Wednesday along with earnings, but as of now the permanent CFO job remains unfilled.

Okta said that it expected an adjusted third-quarter loss of 25 cents to 24 cents a share on revenue of $325 million to $327 million. Wall Street analysts have been forecasting a loss of 34 cents a share on revenue of $321 million.

McKinnon said the company raised its outlook because “all the trends are very positive” and that Okta was exceeding expectations on “all metrics.”

Okta boosted its forecast for the year and said it now expects a full-year adjusted loss of 77 cents to 74 cents a share, on revenue of $1.24 billion to $1.25 billion. For the full year, the consensus estimate has been for a per-share loss of $1.11 on revenue of $1.22 billion.

McKinnon says he’s confident trends would continue in Okta’s favor, which is why the company raised its outlook.

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