Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $168.42, but opened at $161.05. Zscaler shares last traded at $168.6460, with a volume of 414,590 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on ZS shares. Barclays lifted their price target on Zscaler from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Zscaler from $265.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Zscaler from $260.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on Zscaler from $190.00 to $175.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Zscaler from $155.00 to $145.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Thirty-four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $216.18.

Zscaler Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average price of $152.84 and a 200-day moving average price of $149.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.86, a current ratio of 1.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The company has a market cap of $27.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -349.92, a P/E/G ratio of 103.63 and a beta of 0.94.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 26th. The company reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.07. Zscaler had a negative net margin of 2.44% and a negative return on equity of 0.37%. The firm had revenue of $850.48 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $835.14 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.84 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Zscaler, Inc. will post 0.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Zscaler

In other news, CEO Jagtar Singh Chaudhry sold 2,878 shares of Zscaler stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.43, for a total transaction of $363,865.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 343,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,370,294.34. The trade was a 0.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Kevin Rubin sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.22, for a total transaction of $372,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 41,901 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,204,942.22. This represents a 6.68% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 16,269 shares of company stock worth $2,052,589 in the last three months. 17.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Zscaler

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new position in shares of Zscaler during the second quarter worth about $3,588,000. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its holdings in Zscaler by 13,837.9% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 19,388,787 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,736,727,000 after acquiring an additional 19,249,679 shares during the last quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Zscaler by 92.9% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 218 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Zscaler by 16.2% during the 2nd quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,182 shares of the company’s stock valued at $449,000 after purchasing an additional 443 shares during the period. Finally, Saudi Central Bank increased its position in Zscaler by 91.2% during the 2nd quarter. Saudi Central Bank now owns 7,316 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,033,000 after purchasing an additional 3,490 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 46.45% of the company’s stock.

About Zscaler

Zscaler is a cloud security company that delivers a cloud-native platform to protect users, applications and data as organizations move away from traditional, network-centric security architectures. The company focuses on a zero trust approach that assumes no implicit trust for users or devices, providing secure access to the internet, SaaS applications and private applications regardless of where users are located. Zscaler positions its services as an alternative to legacy appliances and site-centric VPNs, aiming to simplify security while enabling modern, distributed workforces.

Key offerings are built around the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange, a multi-tenant cloud platform that enforces security and access policies in-line.