We recently published a list of 11 Best Performing Cybersecurity Stocks So Far in 2025. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Okta Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA) stands against other best performing cybersecurity stocks so far in 2025.

While the Trump administration’s shifting tariff policy, which includes the announcement of steep tariffs followed by a 90-day pause on many import taxes, has prompted some economists to predict a recession within the next year, financial analysts believe the cybersecurity sector could prove to be relatively resilient. Wedbush Securities analysts see cybersecurity as a “defensive” investment that can help investors weather what they call an impending “Category 5 storm.” Another tailwind for the industry comes in the form of increased cyberthreat activities following economic downturns. These add to the momentum of rising cyberattacks expected by analysts for this year.

Although tariffs are projected to have a minimal direct impact on cybersecurity, as most of companies in the industry focus on services rather than physical products, Sonu Shankar, chief product officer of Phosphorus Cybersecurity, an IoT security company, points out that as other industries suffer financial strain and restrict their budgets, spending on security may also face cuts.

As companies go through an increasingly complicated cyber threat landscape, keeping up with developing cybersecurity trends has become critical. According to McKinsey, global spending on cybersecurity products and services hit the $200 billion mark in 2024, a significant increase from $140 billion in 2020, as the number and sophistication of attacks increase. In addition, the cybersecurity industry is expected to grow at an annual rate of 12.4% between 2024 and 2027, surpassing historical growth rates as firms ramp up efforts to combat evolving threats.

Cybersecurity has undoubtedly grown in relevance as more government services and data become digitized, according to Samir Jain, vice president of policy at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a non-profit that promotes digital rights and freedom of speech. Moreover, as cyber attacks become more complex, the demand for trained workers has increased drastically, with cybersecurity companies forecasting that over 3.5 million cybersecurity roles would remain vacant by 2025. As a result, there are calls for broadening recruiting processes to expand the candidate pool.

Our Methodology

For this list, we sifted through financial media reports and identified cybersecurity stocks that were popular among elite hedge funds and favored by analysts. We then checked their year-to-date performance and selected the 11 best performing stocks from our initial pool of 35 popular stocks. The names on this list appear in ascending order of their year-to-date performance, as of April 25.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

A mobile application developer programming on a tablet, illustrating the power of the company's adaptive multi-factor authentication.

Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA)

Year-to-Date performance as of April 25: 28.81%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 72

Okta Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA), a leading identity and access management (IAM) company, provides cloud software that enables organizations to manage and secure user authentication across numerous applications. Its solutions also allow developers to incorporate identity restrictions in applications, websites, online services, and devices.

On March 31, Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage of Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA), rating the stock Overweight and setting a $130 price target. According to the firm, Okta remains a leader in the identity security field, despite recent growth challenges. After a period of solid growth, with a compound annual growth rate of 41.5% from fiscal year 2019 to 2024, Okta’s revenue growth slowed to 15% in fiscal year 2025, with just 10% growth expected in fiscal year 2026. However, the firm believes that new marketing methods centered on upselling and an improved partner ecosystem could improve sales productivity and perhaps lead to better-than-expected performance.

White Brook Capital Partners stated the following regarding Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

“Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA) was basically unchanged from where we bought it in 2024, although its had a good start to 2025. Okta’s products are used by customers and consumers to manage and secure identities. I believe we acquired shares at an attractive price and look forward to publishing a write up early this year.”

Overall, OKTA ranks 2nd on our list of best performing cybersecurity stocks so far in 2025. While we acknowledge the potential for OKTA as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%.  If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than OKTA but trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.