What happened
Shares of Okta (OKTA -2.71%), the company that offers services to manage and protect digital identities, fell 10.4% in June, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The biggest price drop came early in the month and was probably the result of an analyst downgrading Okta's shares.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Needham & Company lowered its buy rating for Okta's shares to a hold, and also reduced its price target from about $47 to $38 at the beginning of June, which likely led to some negative investor sentiment around that time.
Image source: YCharts.
In what should be an example of being cautious about following the whims of analysts, Needham proceeded to upgrade Okta's stock back to a buy at the end of the month.
Now what
What's even more odd about the timing of the drop is that at the beginning of June, Okta reported strong sales growth for its first quarter.
Sales grew by 60% from the year-ago quarter to $83.6 million, and the company's net loss of $26 million was a slight improvement from its $27.7 million loss in the first quarter of 2018.
The company also issued strong guidance for the second quarter, and management said that revenue will be between $84 million and $85 million. That represents about 39% to 41% growth year over year.
Okta's shares have climbed back up about 9% so far in July, which may mean that investors are starting to realize that Okta's first-quarter results warranted a much more positive response than they initially received.
