Oppenheimer Has Lowered Expectations for Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) Stock Price

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) had its price objective reduced by equities researchers at Oppenheimer from $345.00 to $280.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Oppenheimer’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 97.92% from the company’s previous close.

ZS has been the subject of a number of other reports. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $334.00 to $320.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. BTIG Research reduced their price target on Zscaler from $365.00 to $209.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Zscaler from $310.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their target price on Zscaler from $310.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $350.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-four have issued a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $277.66.

Zscaler Stock Performance

Shares of ZS stock traded down $25.89 on Friday, hitting $141.47. 6,123,441 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,569,779. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $200.63 and its two-hundred day moving average is $256.06. Zscaler has a one year low of $141.21 and a one year high of $336.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.56 billion, a PE ratio of -546.28, a P/E/G ratio of 317.40 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $815.75 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $798.92 million. Zscaler had a negative return on equity of 0.12% and a negative net margin of 1.45%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.78 EPS. Zscaler has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.000-1.010 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.990-4.020 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Zscaler will post -0.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Zscaler

In related news, CEO Jagtar Singh Chaudhry sold 2,843 shares of the business’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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 347,857 shares in the company, valued at $80,292,352.74. The trade was a 0.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 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 transaction, the chief financial officer owned 48,161 shares in the company, valued at $11,116,522.02. The trade was a 6.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 19,350 shares of company stock worth $4,471,509 in the last quarter. 17.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Zscaler

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Westpac Banking Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Zscaler by 919.0% during the 3rd quarter. Westpac Banking Corp now owns 9,986 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,992,000 after buying an additional 9,006 shares in the last quarter. VestGen Advisors LLC bought a new position in Zscaler in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,592,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Zscaler by 133.6% during the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 14,780 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,640,000 after buying an additional 8,454 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its holdings in shares of Zscaler by 11.5% during the second quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 164,061 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,505,000 after purchasing an additional 16,868 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ensign Peak Advisors Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Zscaler by 9.9% during the 2nd quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 395,391 shares of the company’s stock valued at $124,129,000 after buying an additional 35,770 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 46.45% of the company’s stock.

Zscaler News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Zscaler this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q2 results beat: Zscaler reported $1.01 EPS vs. $0.89 expected and revenue of $815.8M (vs. ~$798.9M consensus); ARR grew ~25% to $3.36B and the company raised ARR targets and pushed FY/Q3 EPS guidance above prior consensus. Zscaler press release
• Positive Sentiment: AI momentum and business expansion: Management highlighted AI security growth and product demand; Zscaler opened an AI & Cyber Threat Research Center in India with Bharti Airtel, underlining international expansion and AI/security commercialization potential. Zscaler Airtel AI Cyber Center
• Neutral Sentiment: Earnings call / analyst writeups show strong ARR and AI commentary but note near-term execution noise (acquisition-related churn, competition). These details matter for medium-term growth but are less immediately actionable than today’s analyst moves. Earnings highlights
• Negative Sentiment: Wider GAAP loss & spending: Zscaler reported a wider net loss driven by higher sales, marketing and R&D spend; outlets flagged that higher investment weighed on investor sentiment. Reuters: wider loss
• Negative Sentiment: Company commentary and perceived mixed guidance: although EPS guidance was strong, some press reported a lowered revenue outlook or cautious revenue commentary, which heightened investor concern about near-term growth visibility. Benzinga: lowered revenue guidance
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple analyst price‑target cuts: Several firms trimmed targets today (examples: Berenberg 390→320, Morgan Stanley 305→200, Citizens/JMP 355→290, BMO 315→210, Needham 310→180, Piper Sandler 260→185). Most retained constructive ratings (buy/overweight/outperform), but the cuts signal lower near‑term valuation support and add selling pressure. Berenberg cut Morgan Stanley cut
• Negative Sentiment: Market reaction: Even with upside to estimates, headlines emphasizing higher losses, a trimmed revenue outlook and the analyst downgrades prompted selling — causing the stock to decrease today. Barron’s: falls after earnings

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.