Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) Short Interest Up 20.6% in December

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,810,000 shares, a growth of 20.6% from the November 30th total of 3,990,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,800,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.7 days. Currently, 5.1% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on ZS shares. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Zscaler from $197.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Zscaler to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Bank of America cut shares of Zscaler from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $265.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $230.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, BNP Paribas assumed coverage on shares of Zscaler in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $180.00 target price for the company. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $224.84.

Insider Transactions at Zscaler

In related news, CFO Remo Canessa sold 3,703 shares of Zscaler stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.32, for a total transaction of $741,784.96. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 220,635 shares in the company, valued at $44,197,603.20. This trade represents a 1.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Robert Schlossman sold 4,947 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.22, for a total transaction of $842,078.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 107,241 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,254,563.02. This represents a 4.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 16,630 shares of company stock valued at $3,155,697. 18.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ZS. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Zscaler by 3.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,625,861 shares of the company’s stock worth $277,327,000 after acquiring an additional 60,414 shares during the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Zscaler by 28.2% in the 3rd quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,289,350 shares of the company’s stock valued at $220,401,000 after buying an additional 283,540 shares in the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP raised its position in Zscaler by 33.8% during the third quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 399,516 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,293,000 after acquiring an additional 100,814 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in Zscaler by 18.3% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 394,698 shares of the company’s stock valued at $75,857,000 after acquiring an additional 61,037 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in Zscaler by 11.0% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 380,463 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,036,000 after acquiring an additional 37,801 shares in the last quarter. 46.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Zscaler Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of Zscaler stock opened at $184.56 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -738.24 and a beta of 0.82. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $196.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $187.99. Zscaler has a twelve month low of $153.45 and a twelve month high of $259.61.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, December 2nd. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $628.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $605.51 million. Zscaler had a negative net margin of 1.58% and a negative return on equity of 0.75%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.18) EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Zscaler will post -0.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Zscaler Company Profile

Zscaler, Inc operates as a cloud security company worldwide. The company offers Zscaler Internet Access solution that provides users, workloads, IoT, and OT devices secure access to externally managed applications, including software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications and internet destinations; and Zscaler Private Access solution, which is designed to provide access to managed applications hosted internally in data centers, and private or public clouds.