Salem Investment Counselors Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS)

Salem Investment Counselors Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) by 1.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,918 shares of the company’s stock after selling 125 shares during the quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Zscaler were worth $1,968,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. increased its holdings in Zscaler by 4.7% in the 1st quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. now owns 1,120 shares of the company’s stock worth $222,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Corebridge Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Zscaler by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Corebridge Financial Inc. now owns 11,695 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,110,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH increased its holdings in Zscaler by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH now owns 9,780 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,805,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Ironwood Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Zscaler by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Ironwood Investment Management LLC now owns 6,249 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,127,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Zscaler by 16.7% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 482 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. 46.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Zscaler Price Performance

NASDAQ ZS opened at $301.95 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $241.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $212.72. Zscaler, Inc. has a 12 month low of $153.45 and a 12 month high of $306.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.01 billion, a P/E ratio of -1,207.80 and a beta of 1.09.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $678.03 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $667.13 million. Zscaler had a negative net margin of 1.58% and a negative return on equity of 0.75%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.88 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Zscaler, Inc. will post -0.1 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Andrew William Fraser Brown sold 20,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $296.72, for a total transaction of $6,033,207.76. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 27,216 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,075,531.52. This represents a 42.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Ajay Mangal sold 190,480 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.69, for a total transaction of $38,227,431.20. Following the sale, the insider now owns 2,580,210 shares in the company, valued at $517,822,344.90. The trade was a 6.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 386,722 shares of company stock worth $93,690,448 over the last three months. Company insiders own 18.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ZS has been the topic of several recent research reports. BTIG Research lifted their target price on shares of Zscaler from $298.00 to $329.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Zscaler from $285.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on shares of Zscaler from $240.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Zscaler from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Zscaler from $310.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $292.38.

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.