This digital gatekeeper's rally will continue, Wells Fargo says
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Okta is currently undervalued by the market, but the digital gatekeeper should see its shares continue to rally thanks to rising demand for identity and access management services, according to Wells Fargo. The investment bank upgraded the San Francisco-based, $26 billion company to overweight from equal weight, and lifted its 12-month price target to $180 from $150, suggesting 22% upside from Friday's close. "Okta's execution focus on large enterprise (capacity/partner expansion), IGA cross-sell & Auth0 (restored specialist coverage) [are] bearing fruit. Our approach has been see-to-believe and we're starting to see it," analyst Richard Poland wrote to clients Monday, adding that Okta is "not fully appreciated by the current share price." The Okta platform allows security features such as Single Sign-On (SSO) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). Field work conducted by Wells Fargo shows businesses are allocating increased resources to identity-related services, Poland said. Those surveyed ranked identity services as the second-highest priority in their investments, Wells Fargo said. Okta topped the list of providers with rising market share in the identity market, beating out Microsoft. Separately, the investment bank identified Okta's growing embrace of artificial intelligence as another potential driver of share gains. "We believe improving end-market demand & execution could generate a durable low-teens potential growth profile, limiting downside, while AI identity could provide meaningful upside to out-year estimates," Poland wrote. Wells Fargo's call matches the rest of Wall Street, where 36 of 46 analysts rate Okta a buy or strong buy, LSEG data shows. Okta shares have rallied 78% in just the past three months.