Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,430,000 shares, an increase of 18.8% from the January 15th total of 4,570,000 shares. Approximately 5.7% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,780,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.1 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Zscaler

In other Zscaler news, CEO Jagtar Singh Chaudhry sold 2,863 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.32, for a total transaction of $573,516.16. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 358,569 shares in the company, valued at approximately $71,828,542.08. This represents a 0.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Syam Nair sold 3,682 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.32, for a total value of $737,578.24. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 142,866 shares in the company, valued at $28,618,917.12. This represents a 2.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 10,248 shares of company stock worth $2,052,879. 18.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Zscaler

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ZS. CWM LLC raised its holdings in Zscaler by 107.3% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 5,562 shares of the company’s stock valued at $951,000 after acquiring an additional 2,879 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its holdings in Zscaler by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 148,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,390,000 after acquiring an additional 10,551 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in Zscaler by 25.8% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 11,363 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,942,000 after acquiring an additional 2,327 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Zscaler in the 3rd quarter valued at $763,000. Finally, Teamwork Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Zscaler by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Teamwork Financial Advisors LLC now owns 22,003 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,761,000 after acquiring an additional 2,163 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.45% of the company’s stock.

Zscaler Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of ZS opened at $212.70 on Friday. Zscaler has a twelve month low of $153.45 and a twelve month high of $255.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $194.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $189.26.

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. Zscaler had a negative return on equity of 0.75% and a negative net margin of 1.58%. The company had revenue of $628.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $605.51 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.18) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Zscaler will post -0.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ZS has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank increased their price target on Zscaler from $205.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Zscaler from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $240.00 target price on shares of Zscaler in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Citigroup raised their target price on Zscaler from $230.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Zscaler from $215.00 to $205.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Zscaler currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $225.63.

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.