What happened
Shares of cloud-based cyber identity-verifier Okta (OKTA -0.89%) jumped on Tuesday, and are up 2% as of noon ET.
You can thank JMP Securities for that.
So what
This morning, JMP upgraded shares of Okta to an outperform rating, adding a $260 price target that implies the analyst sees the stock rising nearly 55% over the course of the next 12 months, reports StreetInsider.com.
JMP cited "strong success in the Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) market (aided by the acquisition of Auth0)" in support of its new and improved rating for Okta. Throw in a "planned expansion into the Privileged Access Management (PAM) and Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) markets," and JMP thinks Okta now has a "dominant ... powerful identity platform" with which to attack an online identity verification market worth $80 billion annually.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
Investors won't have to wait too long to find out if JMP is right about Okta's dominance. The company is due to report fiscal Q4 2022 earnings on March 2.
Analysts will be looking for Okta to report sales of $359.4 million for the quarter -- up 53% year over year. It's unlikely the company will have any profits to report, however. Okta has been losing money pretty much for as long as it's been in business, and the consensus is that Okta will say it lost $0.24 per share in Q4.
Instead, investors should focus their search for good news on the company's cash flow statement. Okta first turned free cash flow (FCF) positive in 2020, and has been growing its cash profits ever since. Analysts forecast that fiscal 2022 FCF will be in excess of $82 million.
