Van ECK Associates Corp Buys 13,978 Shares of Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS)

Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) by 92.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 29,051 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 13,978 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Zscaler were worth $5,241,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ZS. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its position in Zscaler by 1,151.0% in the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 10,371 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,773,000 after acquiring an additional 9,542 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its stake in shares of Zscaler by 7.1% during the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 221,212 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,495,000 after purchasing an additional 14,701 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 37,801 shares during the period. Zweig DiMenna Associates LLC grew its holdings in Zscaler by 29.8% during the fourth quarter. Zweig DiMenna Associates LLC now owns 77,941 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,061,000 after purchasing an additional 17,900 shares during the period. Finally, Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted its position in shares of Zscaler by 30.3% during the 4th quarter. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft now owns 8,400 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,515,000 after buying an additional 1,952 shares during the last quarter. 46.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Zscaler Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of ZS stock opened at $216.87 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $33.28 billion, a P/E ratio of -867.48 and a beta of 0.89. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $195.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $190.02. Zscaler, Inc. has a 52 week low of $153.45 and a 52 week high of $251.94.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, December 2nd. The company reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $628.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $605.51 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.18) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 26.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Zscaler, Inc. will post -0.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Zscaler

In related news, insider Syam Nair sold 3,682 shares of the firm’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 approximately $28,618,917.12. This trade represents a 2.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Remo Canessa sold 3,703 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 220,635 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,197,603.20. This represents a 1.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,248 shares of company stock valued at $2,052,879 over the last 90 days. 18.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on ZS. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Zscaler from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Zscaler from $205.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $197.00 to $222.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Zscaler from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on Zscaler from $215.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $225.63.

About Zscaler

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.