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Zscaler (ZS) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Zscaler (ZS - Free Report) closed at $118.77 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.35% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.19%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.24%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 8.36%.

Coming into today, shares of the cloud-based information security provider had gained 14.28% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector gained 3%, while the S&P 500 lost 0.54%.

Zscaler will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be June 1, 2023. On that day, Zscaler is projected to report earnings of $0.42 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 147.06%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $409.99 million, up 42.95% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $1.54 per share and revenue of $1.59 billion. These totals would mark changes of +123.19% and +45.69%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Zscaler. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 1.28% higher. Zscaler is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Zscaler has a Forward P/E ratio of 76.85 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 23.26, which means Zscaler is trading at a premium to the group.

We can also see that ZS currently has a PEG ratio of 1.58. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Internet - Services industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.58 as of yesterday's close.

The Internet - Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 98, which puts it in the top 39% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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