Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) Short Interest Up 18.8% in January

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,430,000 shares, a growth of 18.8% from the January 15th total of 4,570,000 shares. Currently, 5.7% of the company's stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,780,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.1 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on ZS shares. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $205.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Zscaler in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Zscaler from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. JMP Securities reissued a "market outperform" rating and issued a $240.00 price target (down previously from $270.00) on shares of Zscaler in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Zscaler from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Zscaler has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $225.63.

Insider Activity at Zscaler

In other news, CFO Remo Canessa sold 3,703 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.32, for a total value of $741,784.96. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 220,635 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,197,603.20. The trade was a 1.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Syam Nair sold 3,682 shares of the firm'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 value of $737,578.24. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 142,866 shares of the company's stock, valued at $28,618,917.12. This represents a 2.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 10,248 shares of company stock valued at $2,052,879. Insiders own 18.10% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Zscaler

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Zscaler by 120.1% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 964,031 shares of the company's stock valued at $173,921,000 after buying an additional 525,956 shares in the last quarter. Natixis bought a new stake in shares of Zscaler in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $87,775,000. Greenvale Capital LLP bought a new stake in Zscaler in the 4th quarter valued at $72,164,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its position in Zscaler by 25.8% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 1,618,176 shares of the company's stock worth $291,935,000 after buying an additional 332,307 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Zscaler by 28.2% during the third quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,289,350 shares of the company's stock valued at $220,401,000 after purchasing an additional 283,540 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.45% of the company's stock.

Zscaler Trading Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ:ZS traded down $2.20 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $214.67. The company had a trading volume of 1,613,801 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,484,273. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $195.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $190.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -858.68 and a beta of 0.89. Zscaler has a 1 year low of $153.45 and a 1 year high of $251.94.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, December 2nd. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.14. Zscaler had a negative net margin of 1.58% and a negative return on equity of 0.75%. The business had revenue of $628.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $605.51 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.18) earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 26.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Zscaler will post -0.1 earnings per share for the current 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.