Zscaler stock rises on earnings beat, upbeat guidance

Zscaler stock soared on Thursday after the cloud security company beat Wall Street's fiscal fourth-quarter estimates as rising artificial intelligence risk spurred urgent demand for cyber tools. Here's how the company performed compared to LSEG estimates:Earnings per share: $1.19 adjusted vs. $1.09 expectedRevenue: $898 million vs. $877 million expectedRevenue jumped 25% from about $719 million last year. Zscaler reported a net loss of $3.4 million, a loss of 2 cents per share, up from a net loss of $17.6 million, a loss of 11 cents per share, a year ago. CEO Jay Chaudhry said the company's Zero Trust cloud security architecture and innovative technology drove this quarter's beat.Chaudhry told CNBC he's "very bullish" on the recently launched Zero Trust iteration for AI agents, a potentially larger long-term annual recurring revenue opportunity. The tool is gaining early momentum and should accelerate rapidly into 2028 and 2029, he said."It's a longer-term opportunity, but I think it's a fantastic opportunity with significant barriers to entry," Chaudhry said. Annual recurring revenue rose 25% from a year ago to $3.77 billion, beating a $3.75 billion estimate from StreetAccount.Cyb...