Zscaler stock rises after Needham, Credit Suisse initiate coverage with bullish ratings

Shares of cloud-based security company Zscaler Inc. ZS, +4.20% are up 1.9% in premarket trading Tuesday following a raft of initiation notes from analysts. Credit Suisse's Brad Zelnick initiated coverage with an outperform rating, writing that the company has a large total addressable market and strong "first-mover" advantage. "While relative valuation appears rich, we believe Zscaler's opportunity is large enough, its secular tailwinds great enough, its offerings compelling enough, and its management team sufficiently capable to execute on its opportunity, exceed embedded expectations, and eventually deliver shareholders profitable long-term growth," wrote Zelnick, who has a $33 price target on shares. Needham's Alex Henderson initiated the stock with a strong buy rating and a $35 price target. Zscaler's stock closed at $26.54 on Monday. "We believe Zscaler is going to be a major company and recommend investors take a core position in the name," Henderson wrote. "The best corollary we can offer investors is Arista Networks ANET, +2.15% which grew from $400 million in revenue at the time of launch to a multi-billion revenue-base company." Shares are up 66% from their March IPO price of $16.