Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,810,000 shares, a growth of 20.6% from the November 30th total of 3,990,000 shares. Approximately 5.1% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,800,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.7 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ZS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $260.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Barclays boosted their price target on Zscaler from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Zscaler from $215.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Zscaler from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $224.84.

Insider Buying and Selling at Zscaler

In related news, insider Syam Nair sold 3,682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.32, for a total transaction of $737,578.24. Following the sale, the insider now owns 142,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,618,917.12. This represents a 2.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jagtar Singh Chaudhry sold 2,863 shares of the firm’s 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 $573,516.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 358,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $71,828,542.08. This represents a 0.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 16,630 shares of company stock valued at $3,155,697 in the last 90 days. 18.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Zscaler

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ZS. Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Zscaler by 28.2% during the 3rd quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,289,350 shares of the company’s stock worth $220,401,000 after buying an additional 283,540 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Zscaler by 13,498.6% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 285,299 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,769,000 after acquiring an additional 283,201 shares during the last quarter. GuoLine Advisory Pte Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Zscaler in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,660,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new stake in shares of Zscaler in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,287,000. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP increased its position in shares of Zscaler by 33.8% during the third quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 399,516 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,293,000 after buying an additional 100,814 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.45% of the company’s stock.

Zscaler Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ ZS opened at $184.56 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $196.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $187.99. Zscaler has a 12 month low of $153.45 and a 12 month high of $259.61. The company has a market cap of $28.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -738.24 and a beta of 0.82.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last issued its earnings results on Monday, December 2nd. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $628.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $605.51 million. Zscaler had a negative net margin of 1.58% and a negative return on equity of 0.75%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 26.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.18) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Zscaler will post -0.24 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.