By Angela Palumbo
Okta reported better quarterly financial results than Wall Street expected on Monday, issuing an update call about the full year. The stock jumped in after-hours trading.
The provider of cloud-based software and identity-access solutions posted earnings for its fourth quarter, the three months ended Jan. 31, of 78 cents a share from revenue of $682 million. The consensus call among analysts surveyed by FactSet was for earnings of 74 cents a share from revenue of $669 million.
In the same period last year, Okta posted earnings of 63 cents a share on revenue of $605 million.
"It was really a breakout quarter," Chief Executive Todd McKinnon said in an interview with Barron's. "There was strength across the board."
Okta also expects first-quarter revenue of $678 million to $680 million, comfortably above the $670 million Wall Street anticipated.
For the year, the company said it anticipates revenue of between $2.85 billion and $2.86 billion. Management's preliminary call, released on a call to discuss earnings in December, was for revenue between $2.77 billion and $2.78 billion. Analysts expected $2.79 billion.
"We're optimistic about FY 26, but also it's pretty early in the year," McKinnon said. He said he is hopeful the company can do even better than it has forecast.
Okta shares were up 11% in after hours trading Monday following the earnings report.
Shares have risen 14% this year as revenue continues to rise. Although the economic environment looks uncertain, with interest rates, inflation, and tariffs top of mind, McKinnon said that Okta is in a good position.
"There's the companies that benefit from AI infrastructure, there's the companies that are selling applications that can benefit from AI models injected in their application, but then there's the security companies and the platform companies like Okta that can help it all work together and help that be secure, and that's going to be a long-term secular growth driver for us," McKinnon said.
Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
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March 03, 2025 16:09 ET (21:09 GMT)
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