Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Buy Rating for Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS)

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $240.00 price objective on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target suggests a potential upside of 26.33% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on ZS. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $240.00 price objective (down previously from $270.00) on shares of Zscaler in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Zscaler from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Zscaler from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on Zscaler from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Zscaler in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $224.84.

Zscaler Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ZS opened at $189.98 on Friday. Zscaler has a 12 month low of $153.45 and a 12 month high of $259.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.15 billion, a P/E ratio of -759.92 and a beta of 0.87. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $196.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $188.20.

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

Insider Transactions at Zscaler

In other Zscaler news, CFO Remo Canessa sold 3,703 shares of Zscaler stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.32, for a total value of $741,784.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 220,635 shares in the company, valued at $44,197,603.20. The trade was a 1.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Syam Nair sold 3,682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.32, for a total transaction of $737,578.24. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 142,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,618,917.12. This represents a 2.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,248 shares of company stock valued at $2,052,879 over the last three months. 18.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Zscaler by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,625,861 shares of the company’s stock worth $277,327,000 after purchasing an additional 60,414 shares during the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its position in Zscaler by 28.2% during the third quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,289,350 shares of the company’s stock worth $220,401,000 after buying an additional 283,540 shares in the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP increased its stake 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 during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in Zscaler by 18.3% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Zscaler by 11.0% in the 3rd 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 during the period. 46.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.