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

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) had its price objective upped by equities researchers at Barclays from $220.00 to $250.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the stock. Barclays‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 20.79% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on ZS. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $240.00 price objective on shares of Zscaler in a report on Friday, January 10th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Zscaler from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Zscaler from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Zscaler from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on Zscaler from $205.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $226.56.

Zscaler Stock Down 3.6 %

ZS opened at $206.97 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $195.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $190.31. Zscaler has a 52 week low of $153.45 and a 52 week high of $251.55. The stock has a market cap of $31.76 billion, a PE ratio of -827.88 and a beta of 0.89.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $628.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $605.51 million. Zscaler had a negative return on equity of 0.75% and a negative net margin of 1.58%. Zscaler’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.18) EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Zscaler will post -0.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Zscaler

In related news, CEO Jagtar Singh Chaudhry sold 2,863 shares of Zscaler stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 358,569 shares in the company, valued at $71,828,542.08. This trade represents a 0.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Remo Canessa sold 3,703 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 $741,784.96. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 220,635 shares in the company, valued at $44,197,603.20. The trade was a 1.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,248 shares of company stock valued at $2,052,879 over the last quarter. 18.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Zscaler

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Zscaler by 120.1% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 964,031 shares of the company’s stock worth $173,921,000 after buying an additional 525,956 shares during the period. Natixis bought a new position in shares of Zscaler during the fourth quarter worth about $87,775,000. Greenvale Capital LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Zscaler in the 4th quarter worth about $72,164,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its position in Zscaler by 25.8% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 1,618,176 shares of the company’s stock valued at $291,935,000 after purchasing an additional 332,307 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in Zscaler by 28.2% in the 3rd quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,289,350 shares of the company’s stock valued at $220,401,000 after purchasing an additional 283,540 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.45% of the company’s stock.

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.