Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $215.00 to $205.00. The stock had previously closed at $208.51, but opened at $195.90. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Zscaler shares last traded at $198.21, with a volume of 2,179,472 shares trading hands.

ZS has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on shares of Zscaler in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Bank of America lowered shares of Zscaler from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $265.00 to $195.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Zscaler from $220.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price target on shares of Zscaler from $290.00 to $235.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Zscaler from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $223.44.

Insider Activity

In other Zscaler news, Director Andrew William Fraser Brown sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $174.10, for a total transaction of $1,392,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 25,907 shares in the company, valued at $4,510,408.70. This represents a 23.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Robert Schlossman sold 1,435 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.70, for a total transaction of $260,739.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 105,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,224,950.20. This represents a 1.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 30,502 shares of company stock valued at $5,256,651. 18.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Zscaler

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in Zscaler in the second quarter worth $28,000. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in Zscaler during the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. True Wealth Design LLC increased its position in Zscaler by 18,500.0% during the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 186 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in Zscaler in the third quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Asset Dedication LLC boosted its holdings in Zscaler by 436.8% in the second quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 204 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. 46.45% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Zscaler Stock Down 3.3 %

The firm has a market cap of $30.92 billion, a PE ratio of -495.51 and a beta of 0.82. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $190.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $184.80.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last issued its earnings results on Monday, December 2nd. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $628.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $605.51 million. Zscaler had a negative return on equity of 3.46% and a negative net margin of 2.66%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 26.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.18) EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Zscaler, Inc. will post -0.95 earnings per share for the current year.

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.