Earnings preview: Okta likely to shrink its loss on higher revenue for Q2 2020

Okta Inc (NASDAQ: OKTA) will be releasing its second quarter 2020 earnings results after the market closes on Wednesday, August 28, 2019. Okta is expected to shrink its loss, while increasing its revenue for the quarter ended July 31, 2019. On average, analysts expect the cloud-based identity management company to post a loss of 10 cents per share on revenue of $131.18 million.

For the second quarter of fiscal year 2020 ended July 31, 2019, the company had projected revenue to grow 37-38% year-over-year to $130 million to $131 million. Adjusted loss for Q2 2020 is estimated to be $0.11 to $0.10 per share.

Okta sees full-year 2020 revenue to be in the range of $543 million to $548 million, representing a year-over-year growth rate of 36-37%, while adjusted loss per share is projected to be $0.49 to $0.45.

For the first quarter of fiscal 2020, Okta reported adjusted loss of $0.19 per share compared to the Street’s estimates of $0.21 loss per share. Revenue jumped 50% year-over-year to $125 million versus the market’s view of $116 million. The company had 6,550 customers at the end of Q1, up 39% and customers with annual contract value (ACV) above $100,000 grew 53% to 1,142.

According to a recent report from Research and Markets, cloud identity and access management (IAM) market worldwide is projected to grow by $7.7 billion in 2025, driven by a compounded growth of 24.6%. United States will maintain a 27.8% growth momentum.

Last quarter, CEO William Losch commented that the company will continue to focus on investing, both in customer-facing headcount and R&D. He added that the headcount growth of 40% in the first quarter is going to be accelerated as the company gets into the second half of the year. Okta had 1,770 employees at the end of fiscal Q1 2020.

Recently, the market research firm Gartner recognized Okta as a leader in the “Magic Quadrant for Access Management, August 2019” for the third year in a row.

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Earlier this month, BMO Capital Markets initiated the coverage on Okta with a “market outperform” rating and price target of $155. On Wednesday, SunTrust Banks increased Okta’s price target to $130 with a “hold” rating, while Cowen initiated the coverage on the stock with a rating of “outperform” and price target of $150.

The San Francisco, California-based firm’s shares, which reached its all-time high ($141.85) during the end of July, had surged 108% so far this year and 126% in the past 52 weeks.

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