OKTA's 40-day moving average helped springboard the equity higher in the past
The shares of cloud services provider Okta Inc (NASDAQ:OKTA) are slightly higher today, up 1% at $201.99, just one session after a nosedive off last week's July 9 record high of $224.90. While yesterday's plummet put the security at a two-week low, it also put it directly in line with a historically bullish trendline on the charts, which could help OKTA move back within reach of its aforementioned all-time high.
Specifically, OKTA just came within one standard deviation of its 40-day moving average. According to data from Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White, six similar signals have occurred during the past three years. Okta stock was higher one month after 83% of these signals, averaging a one-month return of 7.2%. A similar move, from the security's current perch, would put OKTA just above the $216 mark.
There's plenty of optimism still surrounding OKTA. First off, analyst sentiment is overwhelmingly bullish, with 10 of the 15 in coverage calling it a "buy" or better. Meanwhile, short interest is down 6.2% in the last two reporting periods, and the 6.55 million shares sold short represent just 6.3% of the stock's available float, or a little over three days at the equity's average pace of trading.
Furthermore, Okta stock sports a 50-day call/put volume ratio of 2.12 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). This ratio sits higher than 71% of readings from the past year, meaning options players have rarely been more call-biased in the last 12 months.