BOX (NYSE:BOX) and Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) Head-To-Head Contrast

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) and BOX (NYSE:BOX) are both technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, earnings, dividends and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Zscaler and BOX, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Zscaler	1	8	36	0	2.78
BOX	1	3	4	0	2.38

Zscaler currently has a consensus target price of $236.65, indicating a potential upside of 24.42%. BOX has a consensus target price of $39.80, indicating a potential downside of 8.75%. Given Zscaler’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Zscaler is more favorable than BOX.

Volatility & Risk

Zscaler has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BOX has a beta of 0.65, indicating that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

46.5% of Zscaler shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.7% of BOX shares are owned by institutional investors. 17.2% of Zscaler shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.0% of BOX shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Zscaler and BOX’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Zscaler	-1.88%	1.23%	0.40%
BOX	10.59%	-20.97%	4.47%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Zscaler and BOX”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Zscaler	$3.35 billion	9.25	-$63.18 million	($0.39)	-487.71
BOX	$1.23 billion	4.85	$115.38 million	$0.69	63.21

BOX has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Zscaler. Zscaler is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than BOX, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Zscaler beats BOX on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Zscaler

Zscaler, Inc. is a cloud security company that provides services designed to help organizations protect users, applications, and data. Its platform, the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange, connects users and devices to applications while applying security controls, rather than relying on traditional network boundaries. The company’s offerings include Zscaler Internet Access for securing internet and software-as-a-service traffic, and Zscaler Private Access for providing secure access to private applications.

About BOX

Box, Inc. provides a cloud-based content management platform that helps organizations store, manage, share, and collaborate on files. Its services support document workflows across desktop and mobile devices. The Box platform includes tools for content collaboration, workflow automation, security, and governance. It also integrates with business applications and offers AI features designed to help customers work with their stored content. Founded in 2005 by Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith, Box serves businesses and other organizations across multiple regions.