Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) Short Interest Up 20.6% in December

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,810,000 shares, a growth of 20.6% from the November 30th total of 3,990,000 shares. Approximately 5.1% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,800,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.7 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Zscaler in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective on shares of Zscaler in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Zscaler from $260.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. BTIG Research boosted their price target on Zscaler from $205.00 to $238.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Wedbush cut their price objective on Zscaler from $260.00 to $220.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Eleven 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, Zscaler has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $224.84.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Syam Nair sold 3,682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.32, for a total transaction of $737,578.24. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 142,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,618,917.12. The trade was a 2.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Robert Schlossman sold 1,435 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.70, for a total value of $260,739.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 105,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,224,950.20. This trade represents a 1.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 11,683 shares of company stock valued at $2,313,619. 18.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ZS. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Zscaler during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Zscaler during the third quarter worth $31,000. True Wealth Design LLC lifted its position in Zscaler by 18,500.0% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 186 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in Zscaler in the 3rd quarter worth $38,000. Finally, Asset Dedication LLC increased its holdings in Zscaler by 436.8% during 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.45% of the company’s stock.

Zscaler Stock Performance

Shares of Zscaler stock opened at $183.13 on Tuesday. Zscaler has a 52 week low of $153.45 and a 52 week high of $259.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -732.52 and a beta of 0.82. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $196.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $187.98.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last released its earnings results on Monday, December 2nd. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $628.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $605.51 million. Zscaler had a negative return on equity of 0.75% and a negative net margin of 1.58%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 26.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.18) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Zscaler will post -0.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.