Okta Inc. (Okta (OKTA)) reported its fiscal first-quarter results after Thursday's close, and investors liked what they saw. The identity and access management company beat estimates on both the top and bottom lines and issued guidance that came in ahead of expectations.

Okta posted quarterly earnings of 91 cents per share, topping the analyst consensus of 85 cents. Revenue came in at $765 million, easily beating the Street estimate of $751.88 million.

Two key metrics stood out in the report. Remaining performance obligations (RPO), essentially the subscription backlog, hit $4.719 billion, up 16% year-over-year. The current portion (cRPO), which is the backlog expected to be recognized over the next 12 months, was $2.499 billion, up 12% from the same quarter last year. Non-GAAP operating income was $191 million, or 25% of total revenue, compared to $184 million, or 27% of revenue, a year ago.

But the real story might be how Okta's CEO, Todd McKinnon, is positioning the company for the AI era. "AI agents are rapidly becoming a new workforce inside every organization, creating a wave of identities that must be secured and governed alongside human users," McKinnon said in the earnings release. "We're expanding our opportunity as the world's leading independent and neutral identity provider and helping customers make identity the unified control plane for their secure agentic enterprise."

In other words, as companies deploy more AI agents that act autonomously, those agents need identities and access controls just like human employees. Okta wants to be the system that manages all of that.

Looking ahead, Okta raised its fiscal 2027 adjusted EPS guidance to a range of $3.79 to $3.87, versus the $3.79 analyst estimate. It also lifted its revenue outlook to $3.185 billion to $3.205 billion, compared to the $3.184 billion consensus.

Investors responded enthusiastically. Okta shares were up 9.59% to $103 in Thursday's extended trading session.