BofA Raises Zscaler's (ZS) PT to $340 Amid Rising Platform Adoption
Zscaler Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) is one of the 10 best growth stocks to buy according to billionaires. On June 9, Bank of America analyst Tal Liani raised his price target on Zscaler to $340 from $285, while maintaining a Buy rating, following the company's CEO, Jay Chaudhry's, presentation at the Bank of America's 2025 Global Technology Conference (GTC). The analyst highlighted sustained customer demand and increasing platform adoption as key factors contributing to the higher valuation.
A computer engineer analyzing a server network for cyber security threats.
On June 5, management highlighted several positive trends during the GTC event. In the last quarter, over 70% of new annual contract value (ACV) came from upselling to existing clients, while new logo ACV grew 40% year-over-year. Zscaler Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) is expanding its reach beyond core secure web gateway services, with strong traction in data security and Agentic operations now representing nearly $1 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR). Notably, data security alone accounted for $350 million in ARR last quarter.
Its recent acquisition of Airgap Networks highlights a deeper investment in cybersecurity advancements. While competition and pricing pressure remain, Zscaler's product differentiation and focus on efficiency appear to be supporting its growth outlook.
In Liani's view, rising demand for Zero Trust solutions justifies a higher multiple, primarily as Zscaler executes well on both innovation and customer expansion.
Zscaler Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) is a provider of cloud-based cybersecurity solutions. Its Zero Trust architecture ensures secure connections between users, devices, and applications, regardless of location.
While we acknowledge the potential of ZS as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
READ NEXT: The Best and Worst Dow Stocks for the Next 12 Months and 10 Unstoppable Stocks That Could Double Your Money.
Disclosure: None.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Warning signs emerge for Trump with independent voters
President Trump is seeing warning signs emerge from independent voters as his approval rating weakens with the key voting bloc. Trump's net approval among unaffiliated voters reached its lowest level of his second term on Tuesday, according to an aggregate from Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), with his disapproval rating surpassing 60 percent for the first time since he took office. This has accompanied a wider decline in his overall approval rating throughout June. The shifts among independents could be linked in particular to disapproval of Trump's handling of the economy, observers say. And they present an opportunity for Democrats as they struggle to rebuild their coalition heading into 2026 and beyond. 'Right now, the independents are the moving factor,' said Scott Tranter, the director of data science for DDHQ. 'He's holding his base, and he's staying steady not liked by Democrats, and so that's kind of why you see it.' A significant improvement among independents compared to the 2020 race was one key part of Trump's victory in last year's election. While he and former Vice President Kamala Harris tied in this group, according to a report released Thursday from Pew Research Center, that was a net 9-point shift toward him compared to four years earlier. Trump's approval rating has been relatively steady among Democrats and Republicans, with his numbers mostly staying in the mid-to-low teens for the former and the 80s for the latter. But the percentage of independents approving of his performance has fluctuated notably more. Tranter noted the movement is still relatively small compared to what shifts occurred historically, and independents only account for a small percentage of voters. 'A 3-to-4 point movement among his base is worth roughly the movement we saw in the independents in terms of vote share,' he said. 'Basically, we got to see massive movements like that in independents to really move the vote share.' 'He won independents, or had an edge on them in the battleground states in 2024,' he said. 'I don't know that it really matters a whole lot to him. It matters a whole lot more to the party, these congressionals going into 2026.' Some of the latest numbers across pollsters don't paint the brightest picture for Trump with voters who aren't as married to one party. Polls from YouGov/The Economist and Quinnipiac University show him more than 30 points underwater, while Emerson College shows him under by 12 points. One survey from a pollster associated with the Independent Center, which conducts research and works to engage independent voters, found only 37 percent of registered voters approve of his job performance. It also found declining support for him on the issues they considered most important ahead of his inauguration — lowering the debt, reducing inflation, cutting spending and easing political divisions. Lura Forcum, the center's president, said independents who supported Trump largely did because of economic concerns, but they aren't satisfied with the current progress. Economic indicators have been mixed throughout Trump's second term, with stocks rising and the S&P 500 hitting a record high Friday — but at the same time that a key inflation measure rose. The most recent update on gross domestic product from the first quarter of the year showed the economy shrank faster than initially thought. Forcum cited the result of the Democratic primary for the New York City mayoral race, in which democratic socialist Assembly member Zohran Mamdani won, as evidence that voters want a candidate who will do what's necessary to improve their financial situation, regardless of ideology. 'Voters want something to be done about the economy, and at this point, they are not really particular about the details,' she said. 'They are financially uncomfortable, and they're expecting candidates or elected officials to do something about it. And if you can't do that, you really, probably can't win them over at the end of the day.' She noted that the 2026 midterms are still more than a year away and time remains to win independents back, but Trump must 'deliver' on the issues that they have indicated are important. Republicans acknowledged the influence of independents in determining a candidate's success or failure and that Trump has time to improve, but they differed on how much the numbers are a warning sign. Veteran GOP political consultant Christopher Nicholas said any time that a president has lower approval ratings, it can weigh down other candidates seeking to rise, even if it's only a difference of a few points. He said a Republican challenging Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) next year would have a much easier time if Trump's approval rating is 48 percent rather than 42 percent. As of Thursday, Trump's overall approval rating stands at 45.8 percent in the DDHQ average. Nicholas, who publishes the PA Political Digest newsletter, argued that economic information has improved as the stock market's past losses have been reversed. But he said the more time that passes in which independents don't approve of Trump's performance, the harder convincing them will be. 'So the longer you're around, even though it's only been barely, five, six months, the harder it becomes, because now you have to change people's minds, get them back to neutral and then move them to favorable,' he said. Republican strategist Constantin Querard said the state of the generic congressional ballot, in which voters are broadly asked if they would want to vote for a Democrat or a Republican for Congress, gives him more optimism. Despite Trump's struggles, the parties are tied in the average as of Wednesday, with 45.1 percent each. The population breakdown of congressional districts generally gives Republicans a slight advantage, requiring Democrats to lead in the generic ballot by a few points to have a strong chance at winning control of the House, which will be the party's main goal in 2026. 'It's almost the more important number going in 2026 because Trump's not on the ballot,' Querard said. 'In 2024, Trump put together a coalition that was larger than the usual and made up somewhat different than the usual,' he added. 'So we did better with minority voters, independent voters, Black men, Hispanic men. There were a lot of gains into a lot of communities that the question is, does that sustain itself? And gosh, we're a long way from knowing that.' And analysts agreed a frustration with the person in charge has been a commonality across multiple administrations in the current political era. Querard said if the numbers hold for Trump's approval and the generic ballot, it may mean voters choose to stay home rather than vote. 'If they voted for Trump in November and then they disappear, that's not good, but it's still a lot different than if they switched from Republicans to Democrats,' he said. Tranter said Trump's current numbers are what Democrats would want to see in 2026, but it would need to stay — and fluctuations are common. 'This number is what they want to see 12 months from now,' he said. 'It's just not 12 months from now. Maybe it holds, but we'll see.'
Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
As Gen Z and millennial women look to get money-smart, Dow Janes is trending upward
After Britt Baker graduated from Harvard Business School in 2016, her friends back in California begged for a souvenir: the best investment advice she'd learned. Baker, 37, indulged them, starting out of her Fairfax, Calif., living room a finance club that eventually became her present-day financial education startup, Dow Janes — which boasts an Instagram following of nearly half a million. But the wisdom she doled out at those early club meetings didn't actually come from business school, she said. It came from her parents and grandparents, who instilled in her from childhood the importance and mechanics of managing money wisely. Not all of Baker's peers were so fortunate, she said. Indeed, research has shown that many parents in the U.S. are unlikely to teach their children, particularly their daughters, about managing money beyond packing a piggy bank. More than half of Americans said their parents never discussed money with them in a 2024 Fidelity survey. Additionally, a 2021 survey revealed a significant gender gap when it came to early financial education, with 22% of female respondents never having received such education from their parents compared with 15% of male respondents. A 2024 PNC Investments survey similarly found that at a young age, female respondents received less instruction about wealth-building strategies than their male counterparts. These education gaps have led to low financial literacy rates among women in the U.S., especially those belonging to Gen Z. But social media-savvy money experts like Baker in recent years have aimed to change that with accessible financial education content. Their engagement has surged as a volatile stock market and global turmoil surrounding Trump's tariffs have left American consumers, especially those new to managing their money, desperate for guidance. On Instagram, finance education accounts like Dow Janes use anything from infographics to trending meme formats to repackage complex economics concepts for public consumption. In recent months, special interest topics like Trump's tariffs and recession threat have gotten more attention. The goal, Baker said, is to get more finance-related content in front of more eyes. 'The more people are talking about money, the better, because it gets less serious,' Baker said. 'It's like, 'Oh, I've heard about a high-yield savings account because of some influencer, so now I'm going to look it up.' 'It's less scary because [they've] heard it mentioned so many times,' she said. Dow Janes' YouTube and social media posts consist mainly of what Baker called 'building block content,' covering finance essentials from creating a budget to improving a credit score. Anyone can access those materials for free. But for those looking for more personalized coaching and guided learning, the startup offers a 12-month financial literacy course, Million Dollar Year. Priced at $4,000 — discounted 50% for those who opt to join after attending a Dow Janes webinar — the program is a self-study video curriculum, Baker said, with corresponding fill-in-the-blank workbooks covering financial concepts 'broken down into bite-sized pieces.' Million Dollar Year is Dow Janes' primary revenue stream, supplemented by occasional live events and Zoom retreats throughout the year. Baker declined to disclose financial details about the company, but she said Dow Janes is a full-time gig for both herself and co-founder Laurie-Anne King. 'We really hold your hand through the whole process,' Baker said. On top of completing their solo homework, participants attend weekly office hours and coaching calls as well as a monthly 'mindset call,' wherein participants practice positive thinking and self-compassion when they've failed to meet certain financial goals. 'It's not just, 'How to save an emergency fund and where to save it,'' Baker said. Instead, Dow Janes encourages its members to shift their long-term habits by healing their relationship with money. For program participant Meg Collins, 72, that psychologically informed approach was the thing she felt was missing from the series of financial courses she completed before finding Dow Janes. Collins is no longer just tracking her spending, she said, 'but I'm understanding why I'm purchasing things, what the triggers are for me.' During a program exercise wherein Collins wrote a letter to 'Mr. Money,' she discovered she blamed her father for not teaching her everything he knew about saving and investing, which was a lot. Then, she blamed the education system for failing to catch her up. 'Somehow or other, the guys will get together and talk about investments,' Collins said, but young women are rarely included in those conversations, and they fall behind. This pattern of women not having agency over their finances is rooted in history, said financial educator Berna Anat. A self-professed 'financial hype woman' and the author of 'Money Out Loud: All the Financial Stuff No One Taught Us,' Anat, 35, said she aims with her beginner-friendly financial content to empower people, especially first-generation women, to build sustainable wealth. Anat makes anywhere from $65,000 to $125,000 per year as a 'finfluencer,' or finance influencer, primarily through speaking engagements and brand partnerships. The Bay Area-based creator doesn't have any finance certifications or a business degree, a fact she's transparent about on social media. But over the years, she's built a following of more than 100,000 on Instagram and brought finance content to a younger demographic than most finance gurus typically reach. As a first-generation daughter of Filipino immigrants, Anat said she is familiar with the obstacles women like her have historically faced in their pursuit of financial freedom. 'It was, like, a generation and a half ago that we couldn't even get our own credit cards,' she said. 'So there's so much catching up that women have to do, not because we're worse at money or we're worse at logistics or math, [but] because we were structurally, purposefully held back from understanding money, accessing our own money and becoming empowered with our own money.' Yet women tend to internalize that knowledge gap, leading them to adopt the identity of being 'bad at money,' Anat said. 'We blame ourselves for not being as good at money as some of our male peers,' Anat said, 'not remembering that a lot of these men have had generations of financial confidence and generations of secrets and knowledge being passed [down] in boys clubs, from father to son, grandpa to whoever.' Anat acknowledged that 'finfluencers' alone cannot and should not close that gap, given they are not held to the same legal and ethical standards as accredited financial planners, certified public accountants or tax attorneys. Regulatory bodies including the Securities and Exchange Commission Investor Advisory Committee in recent years have pushed for broader classification of 'finfluencers' as statutory sellers and investment advisors, which would in turn subject them to higher codes of conduct. However, many are still protected via regulatory loopholes, such as exemptions for those providing only impersonal advice not tailored to any particular client or issuing such advice for free. Even 'finfluencers' who are technically subject to Federal Trade Commission and SEC guidelines, Baker said, often simply don't follow them and benefit from regulatory bodies lacking the bandwidth to rectify that. After graduating from Cal State Fullerton in 2022, Alice Samoylovich, 25, felt she had a decent handle on her savings. But when she began hearing 'finfluencers' like Tori Dunlap of @HerFirst100K talk about wealth-building strategies and investing, she thought, 'Oh s—, I need to catch up.' That feeling of panic worsened when she and her peers recently began seeing sharp drops in their 401k plans due to fluctuations in the stock market. Everyone was thinking, 'Why is that so much lower than it was before?' Samoylovich said. As the daughter of immigrants growing up in Orange County, Samoylovich said she wasn't taught much about money management: 'It was only the kids of, like, the uber-rich get to get that education.' Even now, her friends rarely speak about finances. But with the current administration 'getting more and more into heated situations internationally,' and Gen Z falling further into debt with little prospects for home ownership or sustainable retirement, Samoylovich is fearful about the economic future of the U.S. In a recent Advisor Authority study, 40% of surveyed Gen Z investors said they felt worried about their ability to pay their bills in the next 12 months, citing loans and debts as a competing financial priority. Additionally, 77% of the GenZers reported being concerned about a U.S. economic recession in the same time frame. Anat said people have even started leaving comments on her years-old videos asking her to explain what stagflation is or how to prepare for a recession. Given the widespread panic, she said it's 'all hands on deck' for online finance educators. Baker has also seen increased traffic on Dow Janes' socials, with the Million Dollar Year program's enrollment on the rise and skewing younger than in previous years. (The startup's typical demographic is women between 30 and 50 years old.) Among Dow Janes' 8,000 current program members, Baker said anxiety is mounting. As for what they should do in the face of all this economic uncertainty, Baker said, 'What we always come back to is, control what you can control.' Maybe tariffs do upend the market, she said, but 'if you're investing for a long enough time horizon, generally, historically, the market is up over time.'
Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business Insider
Leaving Trump's side didn't make Elon Musk much more popular
Elon Musk's image isn't what it used to be. The Tesla CEO's feud with President Donald Trump risked worsening his already underwater popularity, and new polling shows that even the apparent peace between the once-friends hasn't repaired Musk's standing with Republicans. A new Morning Consult poll found that Musk's net favorability is at -14 percentage points. The good news for the billionaire is that his overall standing as of June 20 is up four points since June 15, the week after the peak of his feud with Trump. It's still lower than where he stood when he left the White House in late May. Among Republicans, Musk is down roughly 12 points; he'd dropped 10 points immediately after he criticized Trump in early June. "In the US, Musk managed to alienate both those on the left (due to his support for DOGE, the Trump administration, and the election) and those on the right (as seen in his statements on X following his fallout with the President over the "big beautiful bill")," Frank T. Rothaermel, a regents' professor at the Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech, told Business Insider in an email. "The good thing in the US is that people's memories are short and a ton of stuff is happening every day," he added. Voters began to become increasingly polarized toward Musk after his takeover of Twitter, Morning Consult US Politics Analyst Eli Yokley told Business Insider. Musk's closeness to Trump "poured fuel on the fire," which left his image in a much different state than some of his fellow tech moguls, who also sought to curry favor with the White House. "It weighs on him in a very unique way that other CEOs who have tried to kiss the ring a bit just haven't experienced to the same extent," Yokley told Business Insider. Musk's favorability isn't polled as frequently as someone like Trump. YouGov, which has sporadic data on Musk going back to 2018, found that immediately after the feud, Musk recorded his lowest net favorability in its records. The handful of post-feud polls that have been released show similar warning signs. Namely, many Republicans, who were once the bulwark for Musk's sagging numbers, no longer have such rosy views of the billionaire. An Economist-YouGov poll taken in the week after the feud found that Musk's net favorability among Republicans dropped 20 points. A Reuters-Ipsos poll found that he dropped 13 points in net favorability in a roughly one-month span. This is a critical moment for Tesla On June 22, Tesla began a limited rollout of its robotaxi service in Austin. The stock jumped as much as 11% the following day, though it had pared its gains by the end of the week. Overall, it's been a wild year for Tesla's share price. Musk is the face of Tesla, a close association that comes with some risk. Some analysts downgraded the company during his feud with Trump. "The recent incident between Musk and President Trump exemplifies key-person risk associated with Musk's political activities," Baird senior research analyst Ben Kallo wrote in a note earlier this month. Musk has signaled a retreat from politics, though whether he sticks by that commitment remains to be seen. Tesla is facing other challenges. In China, the newly announced Xiaomi YU7 is priced to compete with Tesla's popular Model Y, and Tesla's sales have fallen in key markets like Europe in recent months. The automaker is set to announce its second-quarter delivery numbers on Wednesday, and many analysts are expecting a year-over-year decrease. John Helveston, an assistant professor at George Washington University, told BI that Musk's "political unpopularity is very unhelpful" as the CEO looks to navigate Tesla through the challenges it's currently facing. "Elon Musk is strongest [indeed, world-class, second to none] when he focuses on his core competencies: solving 'impossible' engineering problems," Rothaermel said. "If I were on the board of directors at Tesla, that is what I would want him to focus on." The Morning Consult poll is based on data collected during the firm's tracking poll from June 20 to 22nd, based on a representative sample of 2,205 registered U.S. voters. The margin of error is +/- 2 percentage points. Smaller subsamples have a larger margin of error. Full results are available here.
