Okta reported fiscal Q2 adjusted EPS of $1.05 and revenue of $805 million, both topping Wall Street estimates, as demand for identity security tools accelerated alongside the growth of agentic AI. Shares rose 20% in after-hours trading.
Okta shares jumped 20% in extended trading on Wednesday after the identity security company reported fiscal second-quarter results that surpassed Wall Street expectations, with CEO Todd McKinnon pointing to the rise of agentic AI as a key driver of new demand.
The company posted adjusted earnings per share of $1.05 against the 97 cents analysts polled by LSEG had projected. Revenue came in at $805 million, topping the $795 million estimate, and rose 11% from $728 million a year earlier.
Net income for the quarter totaled $116 million, or 65 cents per share, up from $67 million, or 37 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.
During the quarter, Okta made its Okta for AI Agents tool — designed to manage and secure autonomous AI agents — available to all customers. New products accounted for 30% of total bookings, and the company said it closed dozens of AI deals, including a multi-million-dollar agreement with a healthcare company.
McKinnon told CNBC that the agentic AI security opportunity is still "very early," adding that recent incidents such as the OpenAI Hugging Face hack are only "catalyzing interest" in identity security solutions.
"Network is the biggest cyber category now, but if you look out five or 10 years, with millions of agents running around, it's definitely going to be identity," McKinnon said. "Not trying to spread ourselves too thinly across all these other categories, I think it's really going to pay off."
On Wednesday, Okta also closed its acquisition of threat detection startup Permiso Security, valued at roughly $200 million. McKinnon signaled that further deals of a similar scale are likely.
"You'll see us do more of these tuck-in things," he said. "We're not going to buy some big legacy company just to have more revenue."
Remaining performance obligations — a measure of subscription backlog — rose 17% year over year to $4.86 billion, surpassing a $4.70 billion estimate from analysts polled by StreetAccount. Current remaining performance obligations, representing backlog to be recognized in the next 12 months, climbed 14% to $2.59 billion.
Okta raised its full-year revenue guidance to a range of $3.22 billion to $3.23 billion, up from the prior outlook of roughly $3.19 billion to $3.21 billion and above the $3.2 billion consensus estimate from LSEG. The company now expects adjusted earnings per share between $3.90 and $3.94, compared with a Wall Street estimate of $3.84.
Okta shares have gained 55% so far this year, reflecting a broader rally across cybersecurity names. Peers CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks have seen their stock prices reach record highs amid what analysts describe as a widening acquisition spree by cyber firms seeking to expand capabilities against AI-driven threats.
The results underscore the degree to which agentic AI — software capable of acting autonomously across systems — is reshaping enterprise security priorities. As organizations deploy growing numbers of AI agents, each requiring its own credentials and access permissions, identity management has moved closer to the center of corporate cybersecurity strategy, reinforcing Okta's core market positioning heading into the second half of its fiscal year.
TechEchelon Staff bylines are produced collectively by the newsroom for short, breaking, and wire-style coverage. Longer-form reporting is published under the responsible reporter's name.
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