Octa The onslaught of agent-based artificial intelligence has soared demand for identity security tools, topping Wall Street’s first-quarter fiscal year estimates after the bell Thursday.
The stock price rose 8%.
Here’s how the company performed against LSEG’s estimates:
Earnings per share: 91 cents adjusted, 85 cents expected; Revenue: $765 million, $752 million expected.
The identity security provider said its revenue was up 11% from a year ago. Net income rose to $74 million, or 42 cents per share, from $62 million, or 35 cents per share, a year ago.
CEO Todd McKinnon told CNBC that demand for Okta’s identity tools is surging due to agent AI enhancements, but AI still doesn’t account for the majority of revenue.
“We’re playing the long game here,” he said. “We don’t have billions of dollars of tokens being spent right now. We’re preparing for what we’re going to need over the next five to 10 years, so I feel like we’re less affected by the euphoria.”
Customers are now starting to evaluate and plan how to deploy AI at scale, which McKinnon said should have long-term benefits for their businesses.
The proliferation of AI agents has focused attention on tools that can validate agents and protect businesses from cyber threats. In recent weeks, Anthropic’s Mythos model has added to those concerns, after the company had delayed its full rollout over concerns that hackers could use it to exploit vulnerabilities in the software.
Software is also facing a major challenge as model makers roll out tools that allow app vibecoding and could replace software as the service sector’s long-standing business model.
McKinnon said Okta is allocating more resources to tools like Okta for AI agents and Net-zero for AI agents as enterprises adopt agent-based AI and seek stronger security defenses.
Guidance for the quarter was broadly in line with expectations. The company expects sales of between $790 million and $794 million, compared to the expected $791 million.
Remaining Performance Obligations. This measures subscription backlog and is the current remaining performance obligation or subscription backlog that exceeds estimates.
