Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Zscaler Call Options (NASDAQ:ZS)

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) was the target of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 18,085 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 54% compared to the typical daily volume of 11,712 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Zscaler news, CFO Remo Canessa sold 8,455 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.28, for a total value of $1,448,172.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 231,793 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,701,505.04. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CFO Remo Canessa sold 8,455 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.28, for a total transaction of $1,448,172.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 231,793 shares in the company, valued at $39,701,505.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Robert Schlossman sold 4,947 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.22, for a total transaction of $842,078.34. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 107,241 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,254,563.02. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 30,502 shares of company stock worth $5,256,651. Corporate insiders own 19.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Zscaler

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Zscaler by 1.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,961,774 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,726,307,000 after purchasing an additional 118,002 shares in the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC increased its position in Zscaler by 28.2% during the third 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. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Zscaler by 5.3% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 496,047 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,335,000 after acquiring an additional 25,181 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP grew 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 acquiring an additional 100,814 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Zscaler by 18.3% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 394,698 shares of the company’s stock valued at $75,857,000 after acquiring an additional 61,037 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.45% of the company’s stock.

Zscaler Trading Up 4.8 %

ZS stock opened at $209.04 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $179.36 and its 200 day moving average price is $181.98. Zscaler has a 12-month low of $153.45 and a 12-month high of $259.61. The company has a market capitalization of $31.88 billion, a PE ratio of -522.59 and a beta of 0.82.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September 3rd. The company reported ($0.05) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.14) by $0.09. Zscaler had a negative return on equity of 3.46% and a negative net margin of 2.66%. The company had revenue of $592.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $567.46 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.17) earnings per share. Zscaler’s quarterly revenue was up 30.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Zscaler will post -0.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Wedbush cut their price objective on Zscaler from $260.00 to $220.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Zscaler in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Zscaler from $208.00 to $197.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Mizuho lowered shares of Zscaler from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $220.00 target price for the company. in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, BNP Paribas initiated coverage on shares of Zscaler in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $180.00 price target on the stock. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $216.73.

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.