OKTA Enhances Security and User Experience With MFA Adoption
Okta OKTA recently announced the release of its international Secure Sign-In Trends Report, which revealed that the use of multi-factor authentication (MFA) has nearly doubled since 2020, ensuring greater progress with governments, partners and customers.
Okta's research also reveals that the use of phishing-resistant authentication such as Okta FastPass or FIDO2 WebAuthn offers the optimal mix of security and user experience.
More than 80% of business web application attacks and nearly half of all business email compromise attacks result from stolen username and passwords. Okta’s MFA addresses this issue by adding an extra layer of security on top of credentials like passwords, which are highly susceptible to abuse.
The technology industry is best placed to move to a passwordless future, with 87% of account logins already using MFA. During Jan 2023, 90% of Okta administrators and 64% of users signed in using MFA.
Okta, Inc. Price and Consensus
Okta, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Okta, Inc. Quote
However, due to an increase in sophisticated MFA bypass attacks, organizations are considering shifting to phishing-resistant authentication flows. Signing in with passwordless, phishing-resistant authenticators saves time and is less prone to failure when compared with using passwords.
Strengthening Portfolio to Drive Top-Line Growth
Okta is benefiting from continued product innovation, which is reflected in its increased customer count and subscription revenues. It continues to expand its technology partnerships with enterprises like Alphabet GOOGL so that customers can deploy its solutions while enhancing security.
Okta expanded its partnership with Google and announced a new go-to market alliance. Google’s global and public sector sellers will now co-sell Okta's Workforce Identity cloud alongside Google Workspace.
It also announced innovations for its Workforce Identity Cloud, which aims to provide a unified control plane for managing identity across an enterprise's resources and users.
Okta’s efforts to strengthen its portfolio are expected to benefit its top-line growth.
In the first quarter of fiscal 2024, the company’s total revenues were $518 million, up 24.8% from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.
Okta’s total customer count was 18,050, up 14% year over year. Customers with more than $100K in Annual Contract Value (ACV) increased 23% year over year.
For the second quarter of fiscal 2024, Okta projects total revenues between $533 million and $535 million, indicating a year-over-year growth of 18%.
For second-quarter fiscal 2024, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is pegged at $534.06 million, suggesting growth of 18.2% from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.
The consensus mark for earnings is projected at 21 cents per share, suggesting an improvement from a loss of 10 cents in the year-ago quarter.
Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
Okta carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). The stock has gained 7% year to date compared with the Internet- Software and Services industry and the Computer and Technology sector’s rise of 17.2% and 35%, respectively.
Some better-ranked stocks in the technology sector are Meta Platforms META and Adobe ADBE. Meta Platforms sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and Adobe carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Meta Platforms shares have gained 125.3% year to date. The long-term earnings growth rate for META is projected at 21.93%.
Adobe shares have gained 41.1% year to date. ADBE’s long-term earnings growth rate is projected at 13.36%.
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