Zscaler's president is leaving the cloud company to work at a privately held tech firm
The shares of Zscaler Inc (NASDAQ:ZS) were last seen down 4% to trade at $150.18, following the resignation of the cloud software company's President Amit Sinha. Sinha will resign on Oct. 21 to take on a CEO role at a privately held tech company, though he will remain on Zscaler's board.
Guggenheim in a research note said that while Sinah was an important part of ZS, disruption should be minimal. The general sentiment among analysts is optimistic, with 24 of 30 rating ZS a "buy" or better. Meanwhile, the 12-month consensus price target of $222.65 is a 41.7% premium to last night's close.
That's not to say Zscaler stock hasn't taken a hit this year. The equity is down 51% in 2022, and over 41% year-over-year. ZS' massive pullback from its Nov. 19 record high of $376.11 bounced off a familiar floor at the $125 mark in May, however, with additional support emerging at the recently formed 1,000-day moving average.
Short sellers, meanwhile, have built their positions. In the last reporting period, short interest rose 16.5% and now makes up 8.2% of the stock's available float or three days' worth of pent-up buying power.
Options traders are bearish as well. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), the security sports a 50-day put/call volume ratio of 1.55 that sits higher than 94% of readings from the past year. In other words, long puts on ZS have rarely been more popular.
The stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) echoes this. The ratio sits at 1.42 and is higher than 86% of annual readings. This implies short-term options players have been much more put-biased than usual.