Bank of America Lowers Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) to Neutral

Bank of America downgraded shares of Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $195.00 target price on the stock, down from their previous target price of $265.00.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Citigroup lowered their target price on Zscaler from $270.00 to $240.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. JMP Securities restated a market outperform rating and set a $270.00 target price on shares of Zscaler in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price target on shares of Zscaler from $290.00 to $235.00 and set a strong-buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $202.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Zscaler in a research report on Wednesday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $218.39.

Zscaler Stock Down 3.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:ZS opened at $156.78 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.70 billion, a PE ratio of -307.41 and a beta of 0.82. Zscaler has a 1 year low of $146.59 and a 1 year high of $259.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $187.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $187.23.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, September 3rd. The company reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $592.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $567.46 million. Zscaler had a negative net margin of 2.66% and a negative return on equity of 3.75%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 30.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.17) EPS. Analysts predict that Zscaler will post -0.38 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Zscaler

In other Zscaler news, CFO Remo Canessa sold 7,981 shares of Zscaler stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.21, for a total value of $1,414,313.01. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 243,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,148,154.06. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 19.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Zscaler

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Jones Financial Companies Lllp acquired a new stake in Zscaler in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Zscaler in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Zscaler by 66.7% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 175 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Asset Dedication LLC boosted its holdings in Zscaler by 436.8% during the second quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 204 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Spire Wealth Management grew its position in Zscaler by 24.5% during the fourth quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 249 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.45% of the company’s stock.

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.