First Trust Advisors LP Boosts Stake in Zscaler, Inc. $ZS

First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,228,134 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 193,281 shares during the quarter. Zscaler comprises 0.5% of First Trust Advisors LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 1.41% of Zscaler worth $667,682,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC increased its position in Zscaler by 145.7% during the 3rd quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC now owns 86 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC acquired a new position in Zscaler during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. McIlrath & Eck LLC purchased a new stake in Zscaler during the third quarter worth approximately $29,000. Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new stake in Zscaler during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Zscaler by 81.9% in the third quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 131 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. 46.45% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. BTIG Research cut their target price on shares of Zscaler from $365.00 to $209.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Barclays set a $220.00 price target on shares of Zscaler in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Zscaler from $350.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Stephens reduced their price objective on Zscaler from $340.00 to $225.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on Zscaler in a research report on Tuesday. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $200.00 target price for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-three have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $267.92.

Zscaler Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of NASDAQ ZS opened at $164.06 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. Zscaler, Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.56 and a 1 year high of $336.99. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $191.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $251.10. The firm has a market cap of $26.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -390.62 and a beta of 1.07.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.12. Zscaler had a positive return on equity of 0.06% and a negative net margin of 2.25%.The company had revenue of $815.75 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $798.92 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.78 EPS. Zscaler’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Zscaler has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.000-1.010 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.990-4.020 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Zscaler, Inc. will post -0.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Zscaler news, EVP Raj Judge sold 3,438 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $230.82, for a total transaction of $793,559.16. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 70,394 shares in the company, valued at $16,248,343.08. This represents a 4.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Jagtar Singh Chaudhry sold 2,843 shares of the firm’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 $656,221.26. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 347,857 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $80,292,352.74. This represents a 0.81% 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 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 17.20% 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.