Okta's Sales Overhaul Pays Off As AI Security Hype Builds: Analyst

Benzinga_recent_news12-13 01:06

Okta Inc.’s (NASDAQ:OKTA) sales reorganization is beginning to deliver tangible results, with a cleaner pipeline, faster deal cycles, and improving sales productivity giving the identity-security firm...

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AI security and product momentum show promise.","collect":0,"end_time":0,"defaultTopTitle":"benzinga.com","property":[],"viewcount":null,"language":"en","relate_stocks":{"BK4528":"SaaS概念","BK4588":"碎股","BK4585":"ETF&股票定投概念","LU2286300806.USD":"Allianz Cyber Security AT Acc USD","AI":"C3.ai, Inc.","BK4023":"应用软件","OKTA":"Okta Inc.","BK4116":"互联网服务与基础架构","BK4560":"网络安全概念","BK4543":"AI","BK4551":"寇图资本持仓","BK4587":"ChatGPT概念"},"translate_title":"分析师：随着人工智能安全炒作的加剧，Okta的销售改革得到了回报","themeId":null,"isJumpTheme":false,"ttsUrl":null,"symbols_score_info":{"OKTA":1,"AI":0.71},"content_text":"Okta Inc.’s (NASDAQ:OKTA) sales reorganization is beginning to deliver tangible results, with a cleaner pipeline, faster deal cycles, and improving sales productivity giving the identity-security firm greater confidence to step up hiring and advance its early push into AI-driven security.\nNeedham analyst Mike Cikos maintains a Buy rating on Okta with a $110 price target, based on a 5.7x EV/Sales multiple applied to his fiscal year 2027 revenue estimate.\nWhile he sees clear improvement in execution, he notes that investors remain focused on whether higher go-to-market spending can translate into sustained revenue growth and stronger retention.\nRelated: Okta Beats Q3, But Slowing Growth Tempers Analyst Enthusiasm\nAccording to Cikos, Okta’s move to specialize its go-to-market teams is yielding benefits. Despite initial concerns that splitting Okta and Auth0 sales forces would be disruptive, the company has continued to outperform its own guidance, signaling stronger-than-expected execution.\nHe points to higher-quality pipeline, shorter sales cycles, and improved close rates as evidence that the strategy is working. These productivity gains have supported new sales hiring in fiscal 2026, with additional headcount expected in fiscal 2027.\nSalesforce metrics are also trending favorably, with lower attrition and longer average tenure, suggesting improved stability across the sales organization.\nLooking ahead, Cikos expects Okta to further refine its enterprise sales model in fiscal 2027 by separating responsibilities between “Hunters” focused on new logo acquisition and “Farmers” dedicated to account expansion and retention.\nHe views this shift as less disruptive than the earlier Okta/Auth0 split and believes it could support new customer growth while protecting net revenue retention.\nOn AI security, Cikos characterizes monetization as still nascent and does not expect a material contribution in fiscal 2027. Even so, he highlights growing strategic momentum.\nOkta for AI Agents is currently in beta, while Auth0 for AI Agents has reached general availability, expanding the company’s footprint in securing AI-driven workloads.\nManagement has disclosed that more than 100 customers, representing over $200 million in annual recurring revenue, are already engaging with Okta on AI security initiatives, pointing to rising enterprise interest even at this early stage.\nIn early December, Okta reported strong third-quarter fiscal 2026 results, delivering $742 million in revenue, up 12% year over year, alongside adjusted earnings of 82 cents per share. Remaining performance obligations climbed 17% to $4.29 billion, signaling solid forward demand.\nThe company generated $211 million in free cash flow during the quarter and ended the period with $2.46 billion in cash, underscoring balance-sheet strength and financial flexibility.\nOKTA Price Action: Okta shares were up 0.35% at $90.91 at the time of publication on Friday, according to Benzinga Pro data.\nRead Next:\nPhoto by Michael Vi via Shutterstock","kind":"highlight","is_publish_news":true,"is_publish_highlight":false,"is_publish_live":false,"is_publish_wemedia":null,"editions":null,"column":"","sentiment":"1","news_tag":"","news_rank":0,"symbols":[],"gpt_button":0,"need_auth":false,"code":"91000000","status":"200"},"commentList":[],"isCommentEnd":true,"newsSizeData":{"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"favoriteSize":0,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false},"APP":{"userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)","isDev":false,"isTTM":true,"deviceId":"web-server-community-laohu8-v3","version":"4.35.11","shortVersion":"4.35.11","platform":"web","vendor":"web","appName":"ttm","isIOS":false,"isAndroid":false,"isTiger":false,"isTHS":false,"isWeiXin":false,"isWeiXinMini":false,"isWeiBo":false,"isQQ":false,"isBaiduSwan":false,"isBaiduBox":false,"isDingTalk":false,"isToutiao":false,"isOnePlus":false,"isHuaWei":false,"isXiaomi":false,"isXiaomiWebView":false,"isOppo":false,"isVivo":false,"isSamsung":false,"isMobile":false},"href":"/m/news/2591683148","isCrawlerRequest":true}