Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS)’s share price gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $214.55, but opened at $224.00. Zscaler shares last traded at $224.0530, with a volume of 1,280,933 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ZS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Mizuho upgraded Zscaler from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Zscaler from $280.00 to $260.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Zscaler from $334.00 to $320.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 26th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $365.00 price objective on shares of Zscaler in a research report on Wednesday, November 26th. Finally, Loop Capital set a $320.00 price target on shares of Zscaler in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-three have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $317.63.

Zscaler Stock Up 3.4%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a current ratio of 1.82. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $235.27 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $273.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.38 billion, a PE ratio of -852.97, a PEG ratio of 3,445.24 and a beta of 1.02.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 25th. The company reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.11. Zscaler had a negative net margin of 1.45% and a negative return on equity of 0.12%. The business had revenue of $788.11 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $773.86 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.77 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.5% on a year-over-year basis. Zscaler has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.780-3.820 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.890-0.900 EPS. Analysts forecast that Zscaler, Inc. will post -0.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Zscaler news, CEO Jagtar Singh Chaudhry sold 2,843 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $230.82, for a total value of $656,221.26. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 347,857 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $80,292,352.74. This trade represents a 0.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Adam Geller sold 1,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $232.79, for a total transaction of $377,119.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 50,528 shares in the company, valued at $11,762,413.12. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 19,350 shares of company stock worth $4,471,509. Corporate insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Groupama Asset Managment raised its stake in Zscaler by 76,352.6% in the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 4,750,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,423,385,000 after buying an additional 4,743,787 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in Zscaler by 314.0% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,171,983 shares of the company’s stock worth $367,932,000 after purchasing an additional 888,888 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Zscaler by 8.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,715,132 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,363,909,000 after purchasing an additional 824,626 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Zscaler by 61.8% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,941,571 shares of the company’s stock valued at $576,083,000 after buying an additional 741,756 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Zscaler during the third quarter worth about $109,440,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.45% of the company’s stock.

Zscaler Company Profile

Zscaler is a cloud security company that delivers a cloud-native platform to protect users, applications and data as organizations move away from traditional, network-centric security architectures. The company focuses on a zero trust approach that assumes no implicit trust for users or devices, providing secure access to the internet, SaaS applications and private applications regardless of where users are located. Zscaler positions its services as an alternative to legacy appliances and site-centric VPNs, aiming to simplify security while enabling modern, distributed workforces.

Key offerings are built around the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange, a multi-tenant cloud platform that enforces security and access policies in-line.