Man Group plc Acquires New Position in Zscaler, Inc. $ZS

Man Group plc acquired a new position in shares of Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 208,854 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,480,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ZS. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its stake in shares of Zscaler by 89.6% in the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 60,933 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,601,000 after acquiring an additional 28,792 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted 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 purchasing an additional 11,941 shares during the period. Oxbow Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Zscaler during the 4th quarter worth $2,939,000. Qsemble Capital Management LP increased its holdings in Zscaler by 105.5% during the 4th quarter. Qsemble Capital Management LP now owns 15,773 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,548,000 after purchasing an additional 8,099 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in Zscaler by 44.3% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 779,245 shares of the company’s stock worth $109,320,000 after purchasing an additional 239,326 shares during the period. 46.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Zscaler News

Here are the key news stories impacting Zscaler this week:

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan raised its price target on Zscaler from $205 to $215 and maintained an “overweight” rating, implying substantial upside from recent trading levels. Benzinga report
• Positive Sentiment: Zscaler participated in Deep Cogito’s $43 million Series A financing. The investment gives Zscaler exposure to a startup developing reinforcement-learning and self-improving AI models, potentially supporting the company’s broader AI and cybersecurity strategy. Deep Cogito funding announcement
• Positive Sentiment: Guggenheim reaffirmed its “Buy” rating, adding another supportive analyst opinion as investors assess Zscaler’s growth prospects. Guggenheim rating report
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst sentiment is mixed ahead of earnings. Reports highlight strong AI-driven expectations across cybersecurity stocks, increasing the potential for volatility if Zscaler’s fiscal fourth-quarter results or outlook fall short. Cybersecurity stocks earnings report
• Negative Sentiment: Evercore added Zscaler to its tactical underperform list ahead of the fiscal fourth-quarter report, signaling concern that the stock’s valuation and elevated expectations may limit near-term upside. Evercore tactical underperform report
• Negative Sentiment: CFO Kevin Rubin sold 503 shares worth approximately $87,210 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The transaction was small relative to his remaining holdings and appears more routine than an indication of changing company fundamentals, but it can still attract modest selling scrutiny. SEC insider trading filing

Zscaler Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ZS opened at $170.31 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.86, a current ratio of 1.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The company has a market cap of $27.54 billion, a P/E ratio of -354.81, a PEG ratio of 99.13 and a beta of 0.94. Zscaler, Inc. has a 52 week low of $114.63 and a 52 week high of $336.99. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $153.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $149.99.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 26th. The company reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $850.48 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $835.14 million. Zscaler had a negative return on equity of 0.37% and a negative net margin of 2.44%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.84 EPS. Research analysts predict that Zscaler, Inc. will post 0.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ZS. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Zscaler in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Evercore set a $155.00 price objective on Zscaler and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Zscaler from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Zscaler in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on Zscaler from $185.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Thirty-four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $216.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Adam Geller sold 2,817 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.60, for a total value of $345,364.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 42,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,187,696.40. This trade represents a 6.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Robert Schlossman sold 3,146 shares of Zscaler stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.43, for a total value of $397,748.78. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 69,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,769,943.38. This trade represents a 4.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 16,772 shares of company stock valued at $2,139,799 over the last 90 days. 17.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.