Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) Shares Up 5.9% on Analyst Upgrade

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) shot up 5.9% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on the stock from $230.00 to $250.00. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Zscaler traded as high as $209.52 and last traded at $208.11. Approximately 977,788 shares changed hands during 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 topic of a number of other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Zscaler from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $240.00 price target on shares of Zscaler in a research note on Wednesday. Susquehanna increased their price target on Zscaler from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Zscaler from $222.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Zscaler from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Zscaler currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $231.97.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Remo Canessa sold 3,703 shares of Zscaler 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 $741,784.96. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 220,635 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,197,603.20. The trade was a 1.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Syam Nair sold 3,682 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 $737,578.24. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 142,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,618,917.12. This trade represents a 2.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,248 shares of company stock valued at $2,052,879 over the last quarter. Insiders own 18.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Zscaler

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ZS. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. grew its position in Zscaler by 127.4% in the fourth quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 141 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Zscaler in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Colonial Trust Co SC bought a new stake in Zscaler during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Zscaler during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Elequin Capital LP bought a new stake in shares of Zscaler in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Institutional investors own 46.45% of the company’s stock.

Zscaler Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $32.04 billion, a P/E ratio of -837.85 and a beta of 0.89. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $195.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $191.54.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last announced 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 quarterly revenue was up 26.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.18) earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Zscaler, Inc. will post -0.1 earnings per share for the current year.

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.