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

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,190,000 shares, a growth of 25.4% from the August 31st total of 4,140,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,920,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.7 days. Approximately 5.6% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ZS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Zscaler in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of Zscaler in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on Zscaler from $208.00 to $197.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Wedbush lowered 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. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their target price on Zscaler from $255.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $218.39.

Zscaler Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ZS opened at $171.77 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -336.80 and a beta of 0.82. Zscaler has a 1-year low of $146.71 and a 1-year high of $259.61. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $178.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $181.98.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, September 3rd. The company reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $592.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $567.46 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.17) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 30.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Zscaler will post -0.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Zscaler

In other 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 231,793 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,701,505.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Remo Canessa sold 8,455 shares of the business’s 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 $1,448,172.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 231,793 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,701,505.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jagtar Singh Chaudhry sold 2,852 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.28, for a total value of $488,490.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 361,432 shares in the company, valued at $61,906,072.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 24,120 shares of company stock valued at $4,153,834 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 19.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Zscaler

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Zscaler in the fourth quarter worth $5,609,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System increased its holdings 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 valued at $20,021,000 after purchasing an additional 6,683 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Zscaler by 9.1% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 116,691 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,478,000 after purchasing an additional 9,689 shares in the last quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Zscaler by 40.0% in the first quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 2,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $470,000 after purchasing an additional 696 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norden Group LLC acquired a new position in Zscaler in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $846,000. 46.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.