Okta stock falls despite increased forecast, earnings beat

Okta Inc. shares fell in late trading Wednesday despite revealing an increase in the software company’s annual outlook and reporting a better quarter than Wall Street expected.

Okta
OKTA,
+0.26%
,
which makes software that helps authorized employees access applications on their corporate networks, reported a second-quarter loss of $210.5 million, or $1.34 a share, compared with a loss of $276.7 million, or $1.83 a share, in the year-ago period. After adjusting for stock-based compensation expenses and other items, the loss came to 10 cents a share, compared with a loss of 11 cents a share in the year-ago period. Revenue rose to $451.8 million from $315.5 million in the year-ago quarter.

Analysts had forecast an adjusted loss of 31 cents a share on revenue of $430.7 million, based on the company’s forecast for a loss of 31 cents to 32 cents a share on revenue between $428 million and $430 million.

Shares rallied after the company hiked its annual outlook in early June. Back then, there had been no indications that a possible hack of its software in January had any material consequence.

Okta executives hiked their annual outlook again Wednesday, forecasting an adjusted loss of 70 cents to 73 cents a share on revenue of $1.81 billion to $1.82 billion, compared with a previous forecast for an annual adjusted loss of $1.11 to $1.14 a share on revenue of $1.78 billion to $1.79 billion. Analysts were expecting an adjusted loss of $1.11 a share on revenue of $1.82 billion.

For the third quarter, Okta executives guided for an adjusted net loss of 24 to 25 cents a share on sales of $463 million to $465 million. Analysts on average were expecting an adjusted loss of 28 cents a share on sales of $464 million, according to FactSet.

Okta shares declined more than 5% in after-hours action immediately following the release of the results Wednesday, after closing with a 0.3% gain at $91.40. The stock has declined 59.2% so far this year, as the S&P 500 index
SPX,
-0.78%

has declined 16.4%.

Source: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/okta-stock-falls-despite-increased-forecast-earnings-beat-11661977244?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo