Financial Review: BIO-key International (NASDAQ:BKYI) and Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA)

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) and BIO-key International (NASDAQ:BKYI) are both technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, dividends, earnings and risk.

Volatility & Risk

Okta has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BIO-key International has a beta of 0.44, meaning that its share price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Okta and BIO-key International”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Okta	$2.92 billion	7.80	$235.00 million	$1.38	94.91
BIO-key International	$6.09 million	0.70	-$7.16 million	($4.11)	-0.72

Okta has higher revenue and earnings than BIO-key International. BIO-key International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Okta, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Okta and BIO-key International, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Okta	2	10	31	1	2.70
BIO-key International	1	1	0	0	1.50

Okta currently has a consensus price target of $140.54, indicating a potential upside of 7.31%. Given Okta’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Okta is more favorable than BIO-key International.

Profitability

This table compares Okta and BIO-key International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Okta	8.24%	4.15%	3.02%
BIO-key International	-50.01%	-67.31%	-40.28%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

86.6% of Okta shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 26.5% of BIO-key International shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.6% of Okta shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.0% of BIO-key International shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Okta beats BIO-key International on 15 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Okta

Okta, Inc. operates as an identity partner in the United States and internationally. The company offers Okta's suite of products and services used to manage and secure identities, such as Single Sign-On that enables users to access applications in the cloud or on-premises from various devices; Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication provides a layer of security for cloud, mobile, web applications, and data; API Access Management enables organizations to secure APIs; Access Gateway enables organizations to extend Workforce Identity Cloud; and Okta Device Access enables end users to securely log in to devices with Okta credentials. It also provides Universal Directory, a cloud-based system of record to store and secure user, application, and device profiles for an organization; Lifecycle Management enables IT organizations or developers to manage a user's identity throughout its lifecycle; Okta Identity Governance provides identity access management and identity governance solutions; Advanced Server Access offers access management to secure cloud infrastructure; Okta Privileged Access enables organizations to reduce risk with unified access and governance management for on-premises and cloud resources; and Okta Workforce Identity Workflows. In addition, the company offers Universal Login, which allows customers to provide login experience across different applications and devices; and Attack Protection, a suite of security capabilities that protects customers from different types of malicious traffic. Further, it provides Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication, Passwordless, Machine to Machine, Private Cloud, Organizations, Actions and Extensibility, and Enterprise Connections. The company sells its products directly to customers through sales force and channel partners. The company was formerly known as Saasure, Inc. Okta, Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About BIO-key International

BIO-key International, Inc. develops and markets fingerprint identification biometric technology and software solutions, and enterprise-ready identity access management solutions for commercial, government, and education customers in the United States and internationally. The company offers BIO-key PortalGuard and PortalGuard IDaaS solutions, a customer-controlled and neutral-by-design cloud-based identity platform that allows customers to integrate with any cloud or on-premises SaaS application, as well as windows device authentication through IAM platform. Its solutions enable its customers to secure their workforces and student populations; and make their partner networks more collaborative. In addition, it provides BIO-key VST and WEB-key products; and Civil and Large-Scale ID Infrastructure solutions that develops finger-based biometric technology. Further, it offers finger scanners for enterprise and consumer markets under SideSwipe, EcoID, and SidePass brand names. The company was formerly known as SAC Technologies and changed its name to BIO-key International, Inc. in 2002. BIO-key International, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Wall, New Jersey.