Shares of Okta (OKTA +5.84%) rocketed higher on Friday after the identity management leader highlighted its massive artificial intelligence (AI)-driven expansion opportunity.
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This cyber sentinel is a cash-generating machine
Okta's revenue rose 11% year over year to $765 million in its fiscal 2027 first quarter, which ended on April 30.
Chief financial officer Brett Tighe said successful new product launches are helping the cybersecurity specialist win more business from corporate customers. He spotlighted Okta Identity Governance, which integrates access management, automation, and compliance tools into a single unified platform.
NASDAQ: OKTA
Key Data Points
All told, Okta's adjusted net income increased 6% to $168 million, or $0.91 per share. That topped Wall Street's estimates, which had called for per-share profits of $0.85.
Better still, Okta continues to crank out free cash flow, to the tune of $271 million in the first quarter.
AI is expanding Okta's addressable market
Looking ahead, management guided for full-year revenue growth of roughly 10% to $3.2 billion, with adjusted earnings per share of $3.79 to $3.87 and free cash flow of $855 million to $885 million.
But what really got investors excited was management's comments about how agentic AI is fueling Okta's growth.
"AI agents are rapidly becoming a new workforce inside every organization, creating a wave of identities that must be secured and governed alongside human users," CEO Todd McKinnon said.
Okta, in turn, is investing strategically to position itself as an indispensable cyber guardian for AI agents.
"We're expanding our opportunity as the world's leading independent and neutral identity provider and helping customers make identity the unified control plane for their secure agentic enterprise," McKinnon said.
