Stifel Nicolaus Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) Stock

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) had its price target boosted by Stifel Nicolaus from $220.00 to $235.00 in a research note released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other research firms have also commented on ZS. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Zscaler from $208.00 to $197.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Zscaler from $202.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Loop Capital reduced their target price on shares of Zscaler from $180.00 to $165.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Barclays cut their price target on Zscaler from $230.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $260.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $217.18.

Zscaler Stock Performance

NASDAQ ZS opened at $201.47 on Thursday. Zscaler has a twelve month low of $153.45 and a twelve month high of $259.61. The stock has a market cap of $30.72 billion, a PE ratio of -503.66 and a beta of 0.82. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $182.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $182.58.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Andrew William Fraser Brown sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $174.10, for a total transaction of $1,392,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 25,907 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,510,408.70. This trade represents a 23.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jagtar Singh Chaudhry sold 2,852 shares of Zscaler stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.28, for a total value of $488,490.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 361,432 shares in the company, valued at $61,906,072.96. This trade represents a 0.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 30,502 shares of company stock valued at $5,256,651 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 19.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Zscaler

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. increased its stake in shares of Zscaler by 21.9% during the first quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 1,587 shares of the company’s stock valued at $306,000 after buying an additional 285 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE increased its position in Zscaler by 6.5% during the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 24,424 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,705,000 after purchasing an additional 1,480 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its holdings in Zscaler by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 4,462 shares of the company’s stock worth $859,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Zscaler by 6.9% in the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 103,937 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,021,000 after purchasing an additional 6,683 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Zscaler by 9.1% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 116,691 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,478,000 after purchasing an additional 9,689 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 46.45% of the company’s stock.

Zscaler Company Profile

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.