According to a MarketersMedia report, the global Identity Access Management market is estimated to grow 16% annually to reach $24 billion by the year 2022. Recently, Okta (Nasdaq: OKTA), a leading player in the industry, announced its fiscal first quarter results that outpaced market expectations and sent the stock soaring 12% higher. The market is very pleased with Okta and its stock has climbed almost 70% since the start of the year.

Okta’s Financials

Revenues for the first quarter increased 50% to $125 million, ahead of the market’s forecast of $116.9 million. Net loss was $52 million, or 46 cents a share, compared to $26 million, or 25 cents a share, a year ago. On an adjusted basis, it reported a loss of $0.19 cents a share, compared with the market’s forecast loss of $0.21.

By segment, subscription services revenues increased 52% over the year to $117.2 million. Professional services and the others segment revenues grew 6% to $8 million. Total calculated billings for the quarter grew 53% to $147.2 million.

For the current quarter, Okta forecast revenues of $130-$131 million with a net loss of $0.10-$0.11 per share. It expects to end the year with $543-$548 million in revenues and non-GAAP net loss per share of $0.45-$0.49. The market was looking for revenues of $127.77 million for the quarter with a net loss of $0.14 per share. It expects Okta to end the year with revenues of $534.14 million with a net loss of $0.49 per share.

Okta’s Product Innovation

Okta continues to drive growth through product innovation. At its recent annual conference, it announced three key upgrades to its product portfolio. It recently announced the launch of a risk-based authentication capability that shows how it is using data to make its customers more secure. Okta analyzes attempts to sign into a network with reference to the user’s context, device, location, and network to assign them a high, medium or low-risk rating. This rating automatically determines and enforces an appropriate access decision.

It also announced the release of two new products – Okta Access Gateway and Okta Advanced Server Access. Focused on enterprise customers, Okta Access Gateway enables seamless access to on-premise applications. It allows its customers to use Okta for secure access across hybrid environments. Meanwhile, Okta Advanced Server Access uses continuous authentication and centralized access controls for on-premise hybrid and cloud servers.

Besides product upgrades, Okta is also eyeing growth through geographic expansion. It recently expanded physical presence in Sydney and Germany to cater to the Asia-Pacific and European markets.

Okta continues to follow a very platform-focused approach for growth. It has a thriving developer community where it offers more than 5,550 apps that can integrate into the cloud and on-premises systems. The recent launch of Okta Hooks is another platform-focused expansion that will allow developers to continue to build integrations for other applications.

Earlier this quarter, Okta also launched a new category within its apps – Apps for Good. The Apps under this category will enable workforces to quickly engage with social impact applications including Benevity, Bright Funds, CareerVillage.org, Kiva, VolunteerMatch, and YourCause. These apps will focus on charitable donation processing, volunteer management, digital volunteering, and platforms for giving.

Okta is also supporting the entrepreneurial community with the launch of Okta Ventures, a $50 million investment fund. Okta Ventures will invest in technologies aimed at solving problems surrounding identity, security, and privacy. It will support companies that leverage AI and ML capabilities to help solve these issues. Okta will also grant these startups with SDK and API design access to its platform.

Its stock is currently trading at $119.49 with a market capitalization of $13.64 billion. It touched a 52-week high of $119.96 earlier this month. The stock was trading at a 52-week low of $41.88 nearly a year ago.

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