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 trading hands.

ZS has been the subject of several other reports. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Zscaler from $270.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. Mizuho lowered shares of Zscaler from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. BTIG Research dropped their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $220.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $275.00 to $210.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 31st. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $217.41.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Remo Canessa sold 7,981 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.21, for a total transaction of $1,414,313.01. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 243,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,148,154.06. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 19.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Truist Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Zscaler by 137.3% during the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 2,572 shares of the company’s stock worth $494,000 after purchasing an additional 1,488 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Zscaler by 166.2% during the 2nd quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 10,012 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,924,000 after acquiring an additional 6,251 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP grew its stake in Zscaler by 613.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 385 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 331 shares in the last quarter. Capital Impact Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Zscaler during the 2nd quarter valued at about $866,000. Finally, Creative Planning grew its stake in Zscaler by 11.3% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 137,983 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,519,000 after acquiring an additional 13,978 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.45% of the company’s stock.

Zscaler Stock Performance

The firm’s 50 day moving average is $188.90 and its 200-day moving average is $188.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. The company has a market cap of $23.75 billion, a PE ratio of -308.10 and a beta of 0.85.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September 3rd. The company reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.18. Zscaler had a negative net margin of 3.62% and a negative return on equity of 5.84%. The business had revenue of $592.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $567.46 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.17) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 30.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Zscaler, Inc. will post -0.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.