Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) Trading 5.9% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) shares shot up 5.9% during mid-day trading on Thursday after UBS Group raised their price target on the stock from $250.00 to $260.00. UBS Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Zscaler traded as high as $209.52 and last traded at $208.11. 977,788 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 47% from the average session volume of 1,854,806 shares. The stock had previously closed at $196.45.

ZS has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Zscaler from $215.00 to $205.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Zscaler from $222.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and set a $240.00 price target (up previously from $235.00) on shares of Zscaler in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Zscaler from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $232.84.

Insider Activity at Zscaler

In other Zscaler news, CEO Jagtar Singh Chaudhry sold 2,863 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 $573,516.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 358,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $71,828,542.08. This trade represents a 0.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Syam Nair sold 3,682 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 value of $737,578.24. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 142,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,618,917.12. The trade was a 2.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 10,248 shares of company stock worth $2,052,879. 18.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Zscaler

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Zscaler by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,658,406 shares of the company’s stock worth $298,710,000 after buying an additional 32,545 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its stake in Zscaler by 25.8% in the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 1,618,176 shares of the company’s stock worth $291,935,000 after purchasing an additional 332,307 shares in the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 283,540 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Zscaler by 120.1% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 964,031 shares of the company’s stock valued at $173,921,000 after buying an additional 525,956 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership increased its position in Zscaler by 30.9% in the 4th quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 868,795 shares of the company’s stock valued at $156,739,000 after acquiring an additional 204,996 shares in the last quarter. 46.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Zscaler Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $196.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $191.57. The company has a market capitalization of $31.02 billion, a P/E ratio of -808.64 and a beta of 0.89.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, December 2nd. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $628.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $605.51 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.18) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 26.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Zscaler, Inc. will post -0.1 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.