Zscaler: Facing Pricing Pressure

Mar. 31, 2023 12:53 PM ETZscaler, Inc. (ZS) StockZS16 Comments
Richard Durant
8.84K Followers

Summary

  • Softer demand is undermining growth, and as a premium solution, Zscaler appears to be facing pricing pressure.
  • While Zscaler has a large lead in cloud-based network security, the quantity and quality of competitors is increasing.
  • Zscaler’s valuation has collapsed over the past 18 months, despite robust growth over this period. Absent a deep recession, it seems likely the stock is near the bottom.

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Urupong

Zscaler's (NASDAQ:ZS) stock remains near recent lows, despite improving profit margins and less concern regarding the future path of interest rates. This is primarily the result of weak demand and uncertainty regarding Zscaler's near term growth. I believe this is short-sighted

This article was written by

8.84K Followers
Richard Durant is the leader of Narweena, an asset manager focused on finding market dislocations that are the result of a poor understanding of a businesses long-term prospects. Narweena believes that excess risk adjusted returns can be achieved by identifying businesses with secular growth opportunities in markets with barriers to entry. Narweena’s research process is focused on company and industry fundamentals with the goal of uncovering unique insights. Narweena has a high risk appetite and a long-term horizon, in pursuit of stocks that are deeply undervalued. Coverage tilts towards smaller cap stocks and markets where competitive advantages are not obvious.Investments are driven by a belief that an aging population with low population growth and stagnating productivity growth will create a different opportunity set to what has worked in the past. Many industries are likely to face stagnation or secular decline, which counter-intuitively may improve business performance if competition decreases. Conversely, other businesses are likely to face rising costs and diseconomies of scale. In addition, economies are becoming increasingly dominated by asset light businesses, and the need for infrastructure investments is declining over time. As a result, a large pool of capital is chasing a limited set of investment opportunities, which is driving up asset prices and compressing risk premia over time.Durant has undergraduate degrees in engineering and finance from the University of Adelaide (Honors) and an MBA from Nanyang Technological University (Dean’s Honors List). He has also passed the CFA exams.

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