Zscaler Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:ZS)

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors purchased 34,160 call options on the company. This is an increase of 22% compared to the average daily volume of 27,921 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Jagtar Chaudhry sold 2,878 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.43, for a total transaction of $363,865.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 343,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,370,294.34. This represents a 0.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 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 Zscaler stock in a transaction that occurred 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 $5,204,942.22. This trade 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 16,772 shares of company stock valued at $2,139,799. Insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Zscaler

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its holdings in Zscaler by 89.6% during the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 60,933 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,601,000 after acquiring an additional 28,792 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Zscaler by 6.6% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 193,297 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,284,000 after buying an additional 11,941 shares during the period. Qsemble Capital Management LP increased its holdings in Zscaler by 105.5% in the fourth quarter. Qsemble Capital Management LP now owns 15,773 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,548,000 after buying an additional 8,099 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of Zscaler by 44.3% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 779,245 shares of the company’s stock worth $109,320,000 after acquiring an additional 239,326 shares during the period. Finally, Danica Pension Livsforsikringsaktieselskab acquired a new stake in shares of Zscaler during the 2nd quarter valued at about $11,232,000. 46.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ZS. FBN Securities reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $175.00 target price on shares of Zscaler in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Zscaler from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 26th. Wedbush started coverage on Zscaler in a research note on Friday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $215.00 target price for the company. Mizuho lifted their target price on Zscaler from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price target on Zscaler from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Thirty-four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $216.53.

Zscaler Price Performance

Shares of ZS traded up $26.18 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $190.72. The stock had a trading volume of 4,711,955 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,376,660. The company has a current ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The company has a market capitalization of $31.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -487.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 20.42 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50-day moving average is $163.38 and its 200 day moving average is $150.40. Zscaler has a 12-month low of $114.63 and a 12-month high of $336.99.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 3rd. The company reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.09 by $0.10. Zscaler had a negative net margin of 1.88% and a positive return on equity of 1.23%. The firm had revenue of $898.19 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $876.96 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.89 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Zscaler has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.860-4.900 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.150-1.160 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Zscaler will post 0.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Zscaler

Zscaler, Inc is a cloud-native cybersecurity company that provides security services designed to help organizations connect users, devices, applications and workloads securely over the internet. Its platform is built around a zero-trust security model, which verifies access based on identity, context and policy rather than relying primarily on a traditional corporate network perimeter.

The company’s offerings include Zscaler Internet Access, which secures access to internet and software-as-a-service applications, and Zscaler Private Access, which provides secure, policy-based access to private applications without requiring conventional virtual private networks.