Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Makes New Investment in Zscaler, Inc. $ZS

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 3,854 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $544,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC lifted its position in Zscaler by 19.9% during the first quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 1,439 shares of the company’s stock worth $285,000 after buying an additional 239 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Zscaler by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 4,899 shares of the company’s stock valued at $972,000 after acquiring an additional 370 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Zscaler by 9.2% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 2,811 shares of the company’s stock worth $558,000 after acquiring an additional 238 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Zscaler during the 2nd quarter worth about $252,000. Finally, Jump Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Zscaler during the 2nd quarter worth about $3,019,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.45% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on ZS shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Zscaler from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 17th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Zscaler from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price target on shares of Zscaler in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $210.00 to $178.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on Zscaler from $185.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Thirty-four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Zscaler has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $216.18.

Zscaler Trading Up 2.3%

Shares of ZS stock opened at $188.38 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $30.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -392.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 108.43 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.86, a current ratio of 1.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. Zscaler, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $114.63 and a fifty-two week high of $336.99. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $157.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $150.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at Zscaler

In related news, insider Robert Schlossman sold 3,146 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.43, for a total transaction of $397,748.78. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 69,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,769,943.38. This represents a 4.34% decrease in their position. 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, CEO Jagtar Singh Chaudhry sold 2,878 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.43, for a total value of $363,865.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 343,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,370,294.34. This represents a 0.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last quarter, insiders sold 16,772 shares of company stock worth $2,139,799. 17.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.