Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) Cut to “Neutral” at Bank of America

Bank of America downgraded shares of Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research report report published on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Bank of America currently has $195.00 target price on the stock, down from their prior target price of $265.00.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus restated a buy rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Zscaler in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $202.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Monday, August 26th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $210.00 to $195.00 and set a sector outperform rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Raymond James began coverage on shares of Zscaler in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. They issued a market perform rating for the company. Finally, Wedbush decreased their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $260.00 to $220.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $218.39.

Zscaler Price Performance

ZS stock opened at $156.78 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $187.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $187.65. Zscaler has a 52-week low of $146.59 and a 52-week high of $259.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -307.41 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Remo Canessa sold 7,981 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.21, for a total value of $1,414,313.01. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 243,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,148,154.06. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 19.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp purchased a new stake in Zscaler in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Zscaler in the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its stake in Zscaler by 66.7% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 175 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Asset Dedication LLC lifted its stake in Zscaler by 436.8% in the 2nd quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 204 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Spire Wealth Management lifted its stake in Zscaler by 24.5% in the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 249 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. 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.