Zscaler Inc. (NASDAQ: ZS) shares were changing hands around $251.14 on Friday, November 28, 2025, down about 0.3% on the day after another choppy session for the cloud-security leader.
Today’s muted move caps a wild post-earnings week: the stock is now trading well below the ~$290 level it occupied before Tuesday’s results and sits roughly a quarter beneath its recent 52‑week high near $337, though it remains comfortably above its low around $165. [1]
Despite the sharp November pullback, Zscaler is still a long-term winner. The shares have delivered about a 22% gain over the past year, and are up more than 60% year-to-date, easily outpacing major equity indices. [2]
How Zscaler stock is trading today
As of the close on November 28, Zscaler stock:
- Last price: $251.14
- Change on the day: −$0.83 (≈−0.3%)
- Intraday range: about $250–$256
- Volume: roughly 1.8 million shares, close to its typical daily activity. [3]
The relatively small move masks the underlying volatility. Earlier in the week, ZS fell roughly 9% in after-hours trading immediately following earnings, even though the company beat expectations and raised guidance. [4]
Across the month of November, Zscaler has shed about 23.9%, putting it on a short list of the worst-performing large-cap tech names as investors reassess richly valued AI and cybersecurity plays. [5]
Earnings beat and raised guidance – so why the sell-off?
Zscaler’s first quarter of fiscal 2026 (for the period ended October 31, 2025) looked strong on almost every headline metric:
- Revenue: $788.1 million, up 26% year over year, and above both guidance and Wall Street estimates. [6]
- Non‑GAAP EPS: $0.96, beating consensus by around 12–13% and rising ~24% from a year earlier. [7]
- Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR): $3.204 billion, up 26%, with net new ARR of roughly $189 million. [8]
- Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO): $5.9 billion, up 35%, signalling a deep backlog of contracted revenue. [9]
- Free cash flow: $413.3 million, equal to about 52% of revenue, up from a 46% margin a year ago. [10]
Management highlighted what CEO Jay Chaudhry called “Rule-of-78” performance – the sum of ARR growth and free-cash-flow margin hovering in the high 70s – putting Zscaler in the upper echelon of SaaS operators when it comes to balancing growth and profitability. [11]
Guidance: still strong, but slower growth
Buoyed by the beat, Zscaler nudged its outlook higher:
- FY 2026 revenue guidance:$3.282–$3.301 billion, implying roughly 22% growth over fiscal 2025, up slightly from prior guidance. [12]
- FY 2026 non‑GAAP EPS guidance:$3.78–$3.82, raised from $3.64–$3.68 previously. [13]
- Q2 FY 2026 revenue: projected at $797–$799 million with EPS of $0.89–$0.90, both a touch ahead of Street expectations. [14]
So why did the stock slump?
- Expectations were even higher. After a more than 60% year‑to‑date rally, Zscaler was priced for near‑flawless execution. Investors appear to have wanted a larger step-up in guidance, especially on revenue growth. [15]
- Growth is decelerating, even if from high levels. Moving from ~26% quarterly growth to a guided ~21–22% for the full year is natural for a company at Zscaler’s scale, but markets often punish any perceived slowdown in high‑multiple names. [16]
- Integration and mix questions around Red Canary. Zscaler’s Red Canary acquisition is a key pillar of its managed detection and response (MDR) push, but analysts are still parsing how much of the reported ARR and revenue growth is “organic” versus acquired. [17]
Roth Capital, for example, reiterated a “Neutral” rating and a $215 price target, arguing that the stock has run ahead of its valuation framework and that organic ARR growth is closer to 20% once Red Canary’s contribution is stripped out. [18]
Analyst reaction: still broadly bullish on ZS
Even after the post‑earnings slide, Wall Street remains largely constructive on Zscaler stock.
- Capital One upgraded ZS from Equal‑Weight to Overweight, lifting its price target from $289 to $320 after the print, pointing to sustained revenue beats and stronger‑than‑expected RPO growth. [19]
- Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an Overweight rating and a $365 target, seeing roughly 26% upside from the pre‑selloff price and highlighting robust demand for AI and cloud security offerings. [20]
- Rosenblatt, Wedbush, Barclays and Morgan Stanley all maintain bullish stances, with price targets clustered between $335 and $365. [21]
- Bank of America recently trimmed its target from $355 to $335 but kept a “Buy” rating, framing the weakness as valuation-related rather than a thesis break. [22]
Across the broader analyst universe, multiple aggregators show:
- A consensus “Buy” / “Moderate Buy” rating.
- An average 12‑month price target around $320–$324.
- Target ranges running from roughly $215 on the cautious end to nearly $400 at the high end. [23]
From today’s ~$251 share price, that average target implies roughly 25–30% potential upside, though of course there are no guarantees that those targets will be met. [24]
Not all coverage is universally bullish. Some firms note that:
- Zscaler still trades at a premium valuation relative to many cybersecurity peers.
- The company must execute smoothly on Red Canary integration, sustain high growth in newer product pillars, and manage stock‑based compensation, all while operating in a more cautious enterprise IT spending environment. [25]
Business momentum: AI security, Zero Trust and the Red Canary effect
Beyond the stock chart, the business story remains centered on AI‑driven security and Zero Trust adoption.
Key growth levers highlighted across the latest call and follow‑up analyses include:
- AI Security and agentic operations. Security Operations (SecOps) ARR is growing more than 80% year over year, with management targeting around $400 million of “agentic operations” ARR in fiscal 2026 as it combines Red Canary’s MDR capabilities with Zscaler’s data fabric and AI security stack. [26]
- Zero Trust Everywhere and Data Security Everywhere. These two pillars together now exceed $1 billion in ARR, with Data Security alone estimated around $425–450 million. [27]
- Red Canary acquisition. Zscaler expects Red Canary to contribute roughly $95–99 million of ARR by the end of FY26. Current estimates suggest about $90 million of ARR and $28 million of quarterly revenue already coming from the acquired business. [28]
- Z‑Flex monetisation. The newer Z‑Flex consumption-based model has surpassed $175 million in quarterly total contract value (TCV), up sharply from about $100 million the prior quarter, and now accounts for roughly 20% of RPO bookings. [29]
Zscaler also continues to benefit from its earlier string of acquisitions in data security and network segmentation, including Avalor and Airgap, which help feed telemetry into its AI engines and expand its Zero Trust platform. [30]
Taken together, these initiatives support management’s confidence in sustaining low‑to‑mid‑20s ARR growth while maintaining enviably high cash margins – a combination that many investors view as the core of the long‑term ZS thesis. [31]
Risk and reward signals from today’s price
For investors watching Zscaler on November 28, today’s modest dip around the $251 level sits at the intersection of strong fundamentals and heightened expectations:
- Volatility is part of the package. Zscaler’s one‑year Sharpe ratio of about 0.48 underscores that while returns have been attractive, they’ve come with real swings – both up and down. [32]
- Growth is still robust but no longer explosive. A shift from 30–40% growth to the low‑20s can feel like a regime change for high‑multiple software names, even if the absolute numbers remain impressive. [33]
- Execution bar is high. Zscaler must show that it can:
- ramp Red Canary profitably,
- hit its AI security ARR ambitions, and
- preserve free‑cash‑flow margins north of 50% in the near term and around the mid‑20s for FY26 overall. [34]
At the same time, the company’s sizable cash balance (over $3.3 billion), large and growing RPO backlog, and expanding base of high‑spend customers (nearly 700 with over $1 million in ARR) provide a meaningful cushion and optionality for further innovation and M&A. [35]
Key takeaways on Zscaler stock for November 28, 2025
- Price check: ZS closed near $251, down slightly on the day but still up strongly over the year, after a steep November sell‑off. [36]
- Fundamentals: The company delivered a clear beat on Q1 FY26 revenue and EPS, with 26% top‑line growth, accelerating RPO and very strong free‑cash‑flow generation. [37]
- Guidance: FY26 outlook is higher across revenue, ARR and EPS, but points to gradually decelerating growth, which has weighed on sentiment given the prior rally. [38]
- Street view: Most analysts remain bullish, with average targets in the low $320s and a consensus Buy/Moderate Buy rating, though at least one prominent firm (Roth) is neutral with a $215 target. [39]
- Strategic story: Zscaler is leaning hard into AI security, Zero Trust and MDR (via Red Canary), aiming to keep ARR growth in the 20s while preserving elite cash‑flow margins. [40]
For traders and long‑term investors alike, Zscaler today sits at an interesting crossroads: fundamentally strong, strategically well‑positioned, but still priced for meaningful execution and growth. Anyone considering the stock should carefully weigh their own risk tolerance, time horizon and portfolio needs.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment or trading advice. Always do your own research or consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.
References
1. www.marketbeat.com, 2. www.investing.com, 3. www.investing.com, 4. coincentral.com, 5. www.marketwatch.com, 6. www.nasdaq.com, 7. www.nasdaq.com, 8. www.cantechletter.com, 9. www.nasdaq.com, 10. ir.zscaler.com, 11. 247wallst.com, 12. www.nasdaq.com, 13. www.nasdaq.com, 14. www.nasdaq.com, 15. coincentral.com, 16. www.nasdaq.com, 17. www.cantechletter.com, 18. www.cantechletter.com, 19. www.investing.com, 20. www.investing.com, 21. www.gurufocus.com, 22. www.marketbeat.com, 23. stockanalysis.com, 24. stockanalysis.com, 25. www.cantechletter.com, 26. 247wallst.com, 27. 247wallst.com, 28. www.cantechletter.com, 29. www.cantechletter.com, 30. en.wikipedia.org, 31. 247wallst.com, 32. portfolioslab.com, 33. www.nasdaq.com, 34. ir.zscaler.com, 35. www.nasdaq.com, 36. www.investing.com, 37. www.nasdaq.com, 38. www.nasdaq.com, 39. stockanalysis.com, 40. 247wallst.com
