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Zscaler CEO addresses investor 'disconnect' on 2025 guidance

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Zscaler (ZS) exceeded fiscal fourth-quarter expectations on both the top and bottom line, but weaker-than-expected fiscal 2025 guidance disappointed investors. Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry joins Asking for a Trend to discuss the cloud company's latest earnings print.

Chaudhry notes that the fourth quarter numbers were strong "across all metrics." He explains that Zscaler's fiscal 2025 guidance projects for 19 to 20% growth year-over-year, adding: "Investors expected that. What they got a disconnect was the growth in the first half of billing was lower" while the second half growth for billings was higher. The combination of these factors led to the guidance that disappointed investors.

"We have a lot of opportunity in front of us," Chaudhry emphasizes. As far as competition, Chaudhry notes "the large customers are very picky, very demanding." With Zscaler having established its position within the market, he believes that they have a sizable lead over newer entrants.

00:00 Speaker A

Zscaler beating analyst estimates for its fourth quarter on the top and bottom lines, but the full year 2025 guidance overshadowing those results. Here to walk us through the print is Zscaler CEO, Jay Chaudhry. Jay, it is always good to have you on the show. Let's dig into this report, Jay, because this is the the first time we had a chance to speak with you about it. This was a good report, Jay. Uh listen, 30% revenue growth, 27% billings growth. I do know, Jay, some on the street though said that that guide for 25 appeared disappointing, you know, their words, specifically billings. So walk us through that, Jay. What what are you seeing in the business?

01:53 Jay Chaudhry

So Josh, it's good to be back on your show. Uh, our numbers were very strong for Q4 as we said across all metrics. Top line, bottom line, cash flow, everything. In fact, we crossed $2.5 billion in annual recurring revenue, a big milestone for us. Our guidance for fiscal 25 is 19 to 20% year over year at a fairly large scale. So I think in general, investors expected that. What they got a disconnect was the growth in the first half for billing was lowered because of historical reasons, because of some of the contracts we had from fiscal 23, which was a tough period. The second half billing's growth is very good. The two combined together leads to 19 to 20%. So as I met with a lot of investors, we have cleared this confusion or disconnect. I think overall, we are pleased with it, and I think investors understand it. We have a lot of opportunity in front of us. We're seeing good opportunity. In fact, we stated during the earnings was we expect to cross $3 billion in annual recurring revenue this year.

04:25 Speaker A

So I guess you're going where where I wanted to go, Jay, because you know, I guess bottom line for investors, um, you know, you've been in tech a long time, you've seen a lot of cycles. You know, markets evolve though. Um, they change, competition's intense. Is Zscaler, Jay, is it still bottom line the growth story uh that bulls believe it is?

05:15 Jay Chaudhry

So Zscaler is a growth story. We we believe in it and we are investing for growth. If you think about three main areas for growth, the market is needs better cyber. The firewalls and VPN based solutions aren't working. Zscaler pioneered zero trust architecture, so customers want it. It's a big market. We pioneered zero trust architecture. We are the biggest brand that customers know. Over 35% of global 2000 companies and 40% of Fortune 500 companies depend upon us. So, yes, we are going through some of the sales organizational changes where we're taking a step function. We're taking our sales organization to the next level where we can go from $2.5 billion to five billion dollar plus beyond ARR. We have the products, we have great and happy customers, and I think we're well positioned to provide some great returns to our investors.

07:34 Speaker A

Jay, let's talk about competition. Uh you know, there's Palo Alto. I recently spoke to Shlomo Kramer uh over Cato Networks. I'm just interested, Jay, how you're seeing the competitive landscape right now and your place in it.

08:08 Jay Chaudhry

We haven't seen a lot of change in the competitor landscape. Yes, there are bunch of entrance. Those entrance are going after the lower end of the market because the large customers are very picky, they're very demanding, and we have established a sizable lead. When it comes to large enterprises, we do extremely well. In fact, some of these entrance who have tried to go to large enterprises haven't fared well. So today, we are at 40% of Fortune 500 companies. In fact, in the last year, in fiscal 24, we doubled the number of large customers, which is G2K, as compared to fiscal 23. We expect to really do extremely well in the large enterprises where the newcomers, they come from old legacy architecture. Most of them are based on firewalls. Spinning firewalls in the cloud as a virtual machine is like taking your DVD players and spinning them up there and calling it Netflix. The architecture we have, the barrier to entry to come to what we need to do, in a market that requires resilience, I think we are extremely well positioned.

10:52 Speaker A

Jay, always love having you on the show. Thanks for making time for us.

11:01 Jay Chaudhry

Josh, thank you.

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This post was written by Angel Smith