Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) Receives “Buy” Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $240.00 price target on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target indicates a potential upside of 28.15% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Zscaler from $215.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Zscaler from $215.00 to $205.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Zscaler in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Zscaler from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Zscaler from $197.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Zscaler presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $224.84.

Zscaler Stock Performance

Shares of ZS stock opened at $187.28 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $28.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -749.12 and a beta of 0.87. Zscaler has a one year low of $153.45 and a one year high of $259.61. The company’s 50-day moving average is $196.72 and its 200 day moving average is $188.10.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, December 2nd. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $628.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $605.51 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.18) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 26.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Zscaler will post -0.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Zscaler

In other news, CFO Remo Canessa sold 3,703 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.32, for a total transaction of $741,784.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 220,635 shares of the company’s stock, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Syam Nair sold 3,682 shares of Zscaler stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.32, for a total value of $737,578.24. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 142,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,618,917.12. The trade was a 2.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 10,248 shares of company stock worth $2,052,879. 18.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Zscaler

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in Zscaler by 28.2% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Zscaler by 13,498.6% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 285,299 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,769,000 after buying an additional 283,201 shares during the last quarter. GuoLine Advisory Pte Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Zscaler in the 3rd quarter worth $32,660,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new stake in shares of Zscaler in the 2nd quarter worth $25,287,000. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP raised its holdings in shares of Zscaler by 33.8% during the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 399,516 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,293,000 after acquiring an additional 100,814 shares during the period. 46.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.