Okta slips as Goldman Sachs starts at sell, citing increased competition
Michael Vi


Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) shares slipped around 1.5% in premarket trading on Tuesday as investment firm Goldman Sachs started coverage on the identity access management company with a sell rating.
Analyst Gabriela Borges, who also slapped a per-share price target of $70 on Okta (OKTA), cited the recent run in the stock, the likelihood that Microsoft (MSFT) will become more competitive in the industry and the belief that more than half of the identity access management industry is already in the cloud.

"We believe product cycles in identity governance and privileged access will likely to take longer than expected to contribute meaningfully to revenue, given the amount of integration functionality needed for these products to win against incumbents," Borges wrote in a note to clients.
Borges added that 2023 is likely to be a "transition year" for identity access management, due to improved execution in Okta's (OKTA) Auth0 portfolio, but a headwind stemming from Customer Identity Solutions.
Earlier this month, investment firm Needham upgraded Okta (OKTA) after the company said it would let go around 5% of its workforce.