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Okta Shares Climb 20% as Investors Revalue AI Identity Push
29 May 2026
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Okta Shares Climb 20% as Investors Revalue AI Identity Push

SAN FRANCISCO, May 29, 2026, 07:02 PDT

Okta shares surged nearly 20% at the open Friday. The identity-security firm topped Wall Street’s expectations for its fiscal first quarter, and analysts from RBC, BMO Capital and Mizuho upped their price targets after the results.

Okta shares were up around $19 at $113.77 as of 09:47 a.m. Eastern. The company posted adjusted earnings of 91 cents per share and revenue of $765 million, topping Wall Street forecasts for 85 cents and about $752 million. Adjusted earnings leave out certain accounting expenses like stock-based compensation.

Okta is back in focus after starting the quarter under a cloud, with investors on edge over whether corporate software demand would stay weak. Back in March, Okta guided for its slowest revenue growth since going public in 2017, blaming economic worries and smaller tech budgets from its enterprise customers.

Okta posted revenue up 11% for the quarter, with subscription revenue showing the same 11% increase. Current remaining performance obligations, or cRPO, climbed 12%. The cRPO figure is the subscription backlog due as revenue in the next 12 months.

Okta wants to ride artificial intelligence as a demand driver. CEO Todd McKinnon said “AI agents are rapidly becoming a new workforce inside every organization,” referring to software agents that take on tasks and need access controls. Okta Investor Relations

RBC has lifted its price target on Okta to $122 from $108, keeping its outperform rating, according to MarketBeat, which cited MarketScreener. The new target from RBC signals roughly 28.8% upside based on the price in their report, MarketBeat said, ahead of a big jump in Okta shares Friday.

BMO Capital’s Keith Bachman bumped his Okta target up to $120 from $95, sticking with his Outperform call. Bachman said Okta posted a solid April quarter, with revenue and cRPO beating forecasts, and the July-quarter cRPO guidance topping what BMO was looking for.

Mizuho boosted its price target to $110 from $100 and maintained its Outperform rating. The firm noted 12% cRPO growth, beating both its own and the Street’s call for about 10%. Mizuho added that agentic AI momentum is starting to pick up, but it’s still early days. Agentic AI involves systems doing more with less direct human instruction.

Okta’s total remaining performance obligations, or subscription backlog, increased 16% to $4.719 billion. Free cash flow came in at $271 million. CFO Brett Tighe pointed to “cRPO strength” and “robust free cash flow” as positives at the start of the year.

The company now sees second-quarter revenue between $790 million and $794 million, with adjusted earnings per share in a 95-cent to 97-cent range. Looking at fiscal 2027, guidance is for revenue of $3.185 billion to $3.205 billion and free cash flow between $855 million and $885 million. Management cautioned that shifting more professional-services work to partners is expected to trim about one percentage point from revenue growth.

But the rally leaves less room if things go wrong. MarketBeat data shows 41 analysts have an average Okta target of $107.03, which is under where the stock traded last. From that group, there’s one sell, nine holds, 30 buys and one strong buy. That sets up the stock for a hit if big customers pull back spending or if AI-agent demand takes longer to materialize.

Competition is turning up. Okta’s identity-management arm runs up against Ping Identity and SailPoint, and analysts point to SailPoint facing pressure from both Microsoft and Okta. Companies are taking a new look at identity systems as AI gets adopted and security rules get stricter.

Market is rewarding execution right now. Okta reported a 6% rise in customers with over $100,000 in annual contract value, reaching 5,180. Customers spending more than $1 million climbed 19% to 570. The future of Friday’s re-rating depends on those big accounts.

A technology and finance expert writing for TS2.tech. He analyzes developments in satellites, telecommunications, and artificial intelligence, with a focus on their impact on global markets. Author of industry reports and market commentary, often cited in tech and business media. Passionate about innovation and the digital economy.

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