What happened
For the second trading day in a row, Zscaler (ZS 1.28%) stock rose in price thanks to a favorable analyst move. This helped the cybersecurity company's shares rise by nearly 3.5% on Monday, a slightly better performance than the 3% gain on Friday.
So what
Today, Zscaler enjoyed a recommendation upgrade from a prognosticator tracking its stock. Piper Sandler's Rob Owens upped his estimation one peg to overweight (buy) from the previous neutral. This was accompanied by a price target increase of nearly 20%, to $190 per share from $160.
The cybersecurity industry as a whole is in a fine position, as it stands to benefit from uptake in next-generation networking services. With increasingly complex networks to operate, there's a growing need for the types of security solutions Zscaler can provide for businesses.
In a new research note, Owens zeroed in on secure access service edge (SASE), a Zscaler specialty. He wrote, "With SASE in early stages of adoption and [Zscaler] remaining a top beneficiary of further adoption, we expect this core growth driver to remain durable for the company over the coming years."
Now what
Owens' move comes one business day after Morgan Stanley named Zscaler as one of three cybersecurity titles for investors to watch.
Although the investment bank was relatively bearish on its prospects -- it ranked it as only an equal weight (hold), versus the pair of buy recommendations it has on Palo Alto Networks and Microsoft -- it pointed out that Zscaler had gained the most market share out of any competitor in the SASE segment.
