Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Buys 15,644 Shares of Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its stake in Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS - Free Report) by 7.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 240,292 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 15,644 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned 0.16% of Zscaler worth $47,679,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ZS. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Zscaler by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,658,406 shares of the company's stock worth $298,710,000 after buying an additional 32,545 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its position in Zscaler by 25.8% in the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 1,618,176 shares of the company's stock worth $291,935,000 after acquiring an additional 332,307 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Zscaler by 120.1% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 964,031 shares of the company's stock worth $173,921,000 after acquiring an additional 525,956 shares during the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of Zscaler by 30.9% during the 4th quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 868,795 shares of the company's stock valued at $156,739,000 after acquiring an additional 204,996 shares during the period. Finally, DnB Asset Management AS grew its position in shares of Zscaler by 66.8% during the 4th quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 667,383 shares of the company's stock valued at $120,403,000 after acquiring an additional 267,162 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 46.45% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on ZS shares. Truist Financial reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $300.00 target price (up from $260.00) on shares of Zscaler in a report on Friday, May 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $305.00 price objective on Zscaler and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $244.00 price objective on shares of Zscaler in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Zscaler from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $260.00 to $385.00 in a report on Friday, June 13th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised shares of Zscaler from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $260.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $296.82.

Insider Activity at Zscaler

In other news, major shareholder Ajay Mangal sold 120,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.89, for a total value of $36,106,800.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 2,550,210 shares in the company, valued at approximately $767,332,686.90. This represents a 4.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Adam Geller sold 3,662 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.72, for a total value of $1,123,208.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 46,813 shares in the company, valued at $14,358,483.36. This trade represents a 7.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 200,793 shares of company stock worth $58,752,794 in the last three months. 18.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Zscaler Stock Up 0.7%

NASDAQ ZS traded up $2.01 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $309.33. 1,632,826 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,063,237. Zscaler, Inc. has a 52 week low of $153.45 and a 52 week high of $317.26. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $267.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $221.41. The stock has a market cap of $48.16 billion, a PE ratio of -1,189.73 and a beta of 1.11.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.08. Zscaler had a negative return on equity of 0.59% and a negative net margin of 1.52%. The firm had revenue of $678.03 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $667.13 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.88 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Zscaler, Inc. will post -0.1 earnings per share for the current year.

About Zscaler

Zscaler, Inc operates as a cloud security company worldwide. The company offers Zscaler Internet Access solution that provides users, workloads, IoT, and OT devices secure access to externally managed applications, including software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications and internet destinations; and Zscaler Private Access solution, which is designed to provide access to managed applications hosted internally in data centers, and private or public clouds.