Citizens Jmp Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) Stock

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) had its price target upped by equities research analysts at Citizens Jmp from $210.00 to $265.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “market outperform” rating on the stock. Citizens Jmp’s target price suggests a potential upside of 22.23% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on ZS. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Zscaler from $200.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. KeyCorp raised their price target on Zscaler from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on Zscaler from $225.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Zscaler from $240.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Zscaler in a research note on Friday. Thirty-five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Zscaler currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $239.41.

Zscaler Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of ZS opened at $216.81 on Friday. Zscaler has a 12 month low of $114.63 and a 12 month high of $336.99. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $184.50 and its 200-day moving average is $156.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.35 billion, a PE ratio of -555.92, a P/E/G ratio of 22.25 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 3rd. The company reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.09 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $898.19 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $876.96 million. Zscaler had a positive return on equity of 1.23% and a negative net margin of 1.88%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.89 earnings per share. Zscaler has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.860-4.900 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.150-1.160 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Zscaler will post 0.7 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Jagtar Chaudhry sold 2,852 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.76, for a total value of $549,751.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 340,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $65,574,253.36. This trade represents a 0.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Kevin Rubin sold 5,957 shares of Zscaler stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.76, for a total value of $1,148,271.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 43,287 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,344,002.12. This represents a 12.10% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 29,053 shares of company stock worth $5,610,165. 17.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Zscaler

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its position in shares of Zscaler by 89.6% during the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 60,933 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,601,000 after buying an additional 28,792 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Zscaler by 6.6% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 193,297 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,284,000 after buying an additional 11,941 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in Zscaler by 44.3% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 779,245 shares of the company’s stock valued at $109,320,000 after acquiring an additional 239,326 shares during the last quarter. Danica Pension Livsforsikringsaktieselskab bought a new stake in Zscaler during the second quarter valued at $11,232,000. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in Zscaler by 12.8% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 1,137,837 shares of the company’s stock worth $160,606,000 after acquiring an additional 129,563 shares during the period. 46.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

More Zscaler News

Here are the key news stories impacting Zscaler this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts continued to raise or reaffirm bullish views following Investor Day. JPMorgan lifted its price target to $245, while RBC, Wedbush, UBS, BNP Paribas Exane and Truist maintained positive ratings; UBS and BNP Paribas Exane set $250 targets. RBC rating article
• Positive Sentiment: The Investor Day highlighted a potential path to more than $8 billion in organic annual recurring revenue by fiscal 2031, driven by AI security, additional customer entry points, cross-selling and expansion beyond Zscaler’s core user-security products. Investor Day analysis
• Positive Sentiment: Amerx initiated coverage with a Buy rating, adding to the favorable analyst sentiment. Zscaler also announced a partnership with IBM and Red Hat to protect private applications during vulnerability windows, potentially expanding its enterprise security opportunity. Amerx coverage article
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor Day reaffirmed fiscal 2027 guidance, easing concerns about recent go-to-market leadership changes. However, Morgan Stanley retained an Equal Weight rating, and BTIG maintained Neutral, indicating that execution and customer growth still need to validate the long-term targets.
• Negative Sentiment: Jefferies said Zscaler’s $10 billion fiscal 2031 ARR goal appears ambitious. Analysts also noted slowing growth and rising costs as risks after the stock’s sharp rally. In addition, Pomerantz announced an investigation into potential investor claims, creating a reputational and legal overhang. Jefferies analysis

Zscaler Company Profile

Zscaler, Inc is a cloud-based cybersecurity company that provides security services designed to help organizations connect users, applications, devices and workloads securely. Its platform is built around a zero-trust security model, which verifies access based on identity, context and policy rather than relying primarily on traditional network perimeters.

The company’s offerings include Zscaler Internet Access, which helps secure internet and software-as-a-service access, and Zscaler Private Access, which provides controlled access to private applications without extending an organization’s network to remote users.