Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) Trading Down 5.6% – Here’s What Happened

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS)’s share price traded down 5.6% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $159.75 and last traded at $160.23. Approximately 718,379 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 79% from the average session volume of 3,358,175 shares. The stock had previously closed at $169.80.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on ZS shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Zscaler from $145.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. FBN Securities restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $175.00 price objective on shares of Zscaler in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Zscaler from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Zscaler in a research note on Friday. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Zscaler from $192.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Thirty-four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Zscaler has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $215.90.

Zscaler Stock Down 5.2%

The firm has a market cap of $26.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -412.10, a P/E/G ratio of 99.94 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $161.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $150.32.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 3rd. The company reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.09 by $0.10. Zscaler had a negative net margin of 1.88% and a positive return on equity of 1.23%. The firm had revenue of $898.19 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $876.96 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.89 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 24.9% on a year-over-year basis. Zscaler has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.860-4.900 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.150-1.160 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Zscaler, Inc. will post 0.13 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Zscaler

In other news, insider Robert Schlossman sold 3,146 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.43, for a total transaction of $397,748.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 69,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,769,943.38. This trade represents a 4.34% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Jagtar Chaudhry sold 2,878 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.43, for a total value of $363,865.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 343,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,370,294.34. The trade was a 0.83% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold 16,772 shares of company stock valued at $2,139,799 over the last three months. Company insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Zscaler

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Binnacle Investments Inc purchased a new position in Zscaler in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. AlphaCentric Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Zscaler during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Zscaler during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its position in shares of Zscaler by 92.9% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 218 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mcguire Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Zscaler during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.45% of the company’s stock.

About Zscaler

Zscaler is a cloud security company that delivers a cloud-native platform to protect users, applications and data as organizations move away from traditional, network-centric security architectures. The company focuses on a zero trust approach that assumes no implicit trust for users or devices, providing secure access to the internet, SaaS applications and private applications regardless of where users are located. Zscaler positions its services as an alternative to legacy appliances and site-centric VPNs, aiming to simplify security while enabling modern, distributed workforces.

Key offerings are built around the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange, a multi-tenant cloud platform that enforces security and access policies in-line.