Citigroup Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) Stock Price

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) had its price objective lowered by equities research analysts at Citigroup from $350.00 to $305.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Citigroup’s target price indicates a potential upside of 42.77% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on ZS. Loop Capital set a $320.00 price objective on Zscaler in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on Zscaler from $334.00 to $320.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. Capital One Financial set a $320.00 price target on shares of Zscaler and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Zscaler in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $280.00 to $260.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-three have assigned a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Zscaler presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $317.63.

Zscaler Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of ZS stock traded down $3.00 on Tuesday, hitting $213.63. 798,991 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,551,747. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.07 billion, a P/E ratio of -821.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4,155.78 and a beta of 1.02. Zscaler has a fifty-two week low of $164.78 and a fifty-two week high of $336.99. The business has a 50-day moving average of $256.34 and a 200 day moving average of $280.20.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 25th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $788.11 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $773.86 million. Zscaler had a negative return on equity of 0.12% and a negative net margin of 1.45%.Zscaler’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.77 EPS. Zscaler has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.780-3.820 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.890-0.900 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Zscaler will post -0.1 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Adam Geller sold 2,060 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $230.82, for a total transaction of $475,489.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 52,148 shares in the company, valued at $12,036,801.36. This represents a 3.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Kevin Rubin sold 3,303 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $230.82, for a total transaction of $762,398.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 48,161 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,116,522.02. The trade was a 6.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 22,550 shares of company stock valued at $5,511,509. Company insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Zscaler

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ZS. Binnacle Investments Inc acquired a new position in shares of Zscaler during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Zscaler by 145.7% during the third quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC now owns 86 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Zscaler in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. McIlrath & Eck LLC purchased a new position in shares of Zscaler during the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Quaker Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Zscaler by 200.0% in the 2nd quarter. Quaker Wealth Management LLC now owns 97 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 194 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.45% of the company’s stock.

About Zscaler

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.