Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Trims Position in Zscaler, Inc. $ZS

Key Points

• Sequoia Financial Advisors cut its Zscaler position by 72.5% in the second quarter, selling 44,439 shares and retaining 16,876 shares valued at approximately $2.38 million.
• Other institutional investors increased their exposure significantly, with institutional and hedge-fund ownership totaling 46.45% of Zscaler’s outstanding shares.
• Zscaler exceeded quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, while analysts maintained a largely bullish outlook: 34 analysts rated the stock a Buy, with an average price target of $216.53 versus its $164.54 opening price.

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC decreased its position in Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS - Free Report) by 72.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 16,876 shares of the company's stock after selling 44,439 shares during the quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC's holdings in Zscaler were worth $2,382,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its position in Zscaler by 13,837.9% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 19,388,787 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,736,727,000 after buying an additional 19,249,679 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Zscaler in the second quarter worth approximately $1,396,028,000. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Zscaler by 36.2% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,518,678 shares of the company's stock worth $493,635,000 after acquiring an additional 935,781 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Zscaler by 43.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,572,358 shares of the company's stock valued at $578,576,000 after acquiring an additional 777,414 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake 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 worth $576,083,000 after purchasing an additional 741,756 shares in the last quarter. 46.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Zscaler

In related news, CEO Jagtar Chaudhry sold 2,878 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.43, for a total transaction of $363,865.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 343,038 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $43,370,294.34. This represents a 0.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Robert Schlossman sold 3,146 shares of Zscaler stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.43, for a total value of $397,748.78. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 69,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,769,943.38. The trade was a 4.34% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 16,772 shares of company stock valued at $2,139,799 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 17.20% of the company's stock.

Zscaler Stock Performance

ZS stock opened at $164.54 on Monday. Zscaler, Inc. has a 1-year low of $114.63 and a 1-year high of $336.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.70. The company has a market capitalization of $26.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -421.90, a PEG ratio of 20.42 and a beta of 0.95. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $163.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $150.40.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 3rd. The company reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.09 by $0.10. Zscaler had a negative net margin of 1.88% and a positive return on equity of 1.23%. The company had revenue of $898.19 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $876.96 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.89 EPS. Zscaler's revenue for the quarter was up 24.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Zscaler has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.860-4.900 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 1.150-1.160 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Zscaler, Inc. will post 0.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on Zscaler from $228.00 to $224.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Zscaler from $178.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, September 4th. Scotiabank reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Zscaler in a report on Friday, September 4th. Wedbush initiated coverage on shares of Zscaler in a report on Friday. They set an "outperform" rating and a $215.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $214.00 price target on shares of Zscaler in a research report on Friday, September 4th. Thirty-four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Zscaler presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $216.53.

About Zscaler

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

The company's offerings include Zscaler Internet Access, which secures access to internet and software-as-a-service applications, and Zscaler Private Access, which provides secure, policy-based access to private applications without requiring conventional virtual private networks.

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