Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) shares gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on the stock from $230.00 to $220.00. The stock had previously closed at $193.19, but opened at $158.74. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Zscaler shares last traded at $160.69, with a volume of 2,025,019 shares traded.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $270.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. BTIG Research decreased their target price on shares of Zscaler from $220.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James started coverage on shares of Zscaler in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Zscaler from $182.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Susquehanna decreased their target price on shares of Zscaler from $275.00 to $210.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $217.41.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Remo Canessa sold 4,689 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.93, for a total value of $848,380.77. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 251,467 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,497,924.31. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 19.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Zscaler

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ZS. Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Zscaler by 137.3% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 2,572 shares of the company’s stock valued at $494,000 after purchasing an additional 1,488 shares in the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Zscaler by 166.2% during the second quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 10,012 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,924,000 after purchasing an additional 6,251 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP boosted its stake in shares of Zscaler by 613.0% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 385 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 331 shares in the last quarter. Capital Impact Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Zscaler during the second quarter valued at approximately $866,000. Finally, Creative Planning boosted its stake in shares of Zscaler by 11.3% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 137,983 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,519,000 after purchasing an additional 13,978 shares in the last quarter. 46.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Zscaler Trading Down 18.7 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $188.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $188.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.75 billion, a P/E ratio of -308.10 and a beta of 0.85.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 3rd. The company reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $592.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $567.46 million. Zscaler had a negative net margin of 3.62% and a negative return on equity of 5.84%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 30.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.17) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Zscaler, Inc. will post -0.32 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.