GURUFOCUS.COM » STOCK LIST » Technology » Software » Zscaler Inc (NAS:ZS) » Definitions » Free Cash Flow

Zscaler (Zscaler) Free Cash Flow : $501 Mil (TTM As of Jan. 2024)


View and export this data going back to 2018. Start your Free Trial

What is Zscaler Free Cash Flow?

Zscaler's total free cash flow for the months ended in Jan. 2024 was $101 Mil. Its total free cash flow for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Jan. 2024 was $501 Mil.

Zscaler's Free Cash Flow per Share for the months ended in Jan. 2024 was $0.68. Its free cash flow per share for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Jan. 2024 was $3.40.

During the past 12 months, the average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate of Zscaler was 75.70% per year. During the past 3 years, the average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate was 121.10% per year. During the past 5 years, the average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate was 127.60% per year. Please click Growth Rate Calculation Example (GuruFocus) to see how GuruFocus calculates Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT)'s revenue growth rate. You can apply the same method to get the Free Cash Flow Growth Rate using Free Cash Flow per Share data.

During the past 9 years, Zscaler's highest 3-Year average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate was 217.90% per year. The lowest was 93.70% per year. And the median was 121.10% per year.


Zscaler Free Cash Flow Historical Data

The historical data trend for Zscaler's Free Cash Flow can be seen below:

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.

* Premium members only.

Zscaler Free Cash Flow Chart

Zscaler Annual Data
Trend Jul15 Jul16 Jul17 Jul18 Jul19 Jul20 Jul21 Jul22 Jul23
Free Cash Flow
Get a 7-Day Free Trial Premium Member Only 27.87 27.51 143.74 231.33 333.62

Zscaler Quarterly Data
Apr19 Jul19 Oct19 Jan20 Apr20 Jul20 Oct20 Jan21 Apr21 Jul21 Oct21 Jan22 Apr22 Jul22 Oct22 Jan23 Apr23 Jul23 Oct23 Jan24
Free Cash Flow Get a 7-Day Free Trial Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only 62.82 73.89 101.30 224.72 100.79

Zscaler Free Cash Flow Calculation

Free Cash Flow is considered one of the most important parameters to measure a company's earnings power by value investors because it is not subject to estimates of Depreciation, Depletion and Amortization (DDA). However, when we look at the Free Cash Flow, we should look from a long term perspective, because any year's Free Cash Flow can be drastically affected by the spending on Property, Plant, & Equipment (PPE) of the business in that year. Over the long term, Free Cash Flow should give pretty good picture on the real earnings power of the company.

Zscaler's Free Cash Flow for the fiscal year that ended in Jul. 2023 is calculated as

Free Cash Flow (A: Jul. 2023 )=Cash Flow from Operations+Capital Expenditure
=462.343+-128.724
=334

Zscaler's Free Cash Flow for the quarter that ended in Jan. 2024 is calculated as

Free Cash Flow (Q: Jan. 2024 )=Cash Flow from Operations+Capital Expenditure
=142.069+-41.281
=101

Free Cash Flow for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Jan. 2024 adds up the quarterly data reported by the company within the most recent 12 months, which was $501 Mil.

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.


Zscaler  (NAS:ZS) Free Cash Flow Explanation

Free Cash Flow is very close to Warren Buffett's definition of Owner's Earnings, except that in Warren Buffett's Owner's Earnings, the spending for Property, Plant, and Equipment is only for maintenance (replacement), while in the Free Cash Flow calculation, the cost of new Property, Plant, and Equipment due to business expansion is also deducted. There, Free Cash Flow is more conservative than Owner's Earnings.

In Don Yacktman's calculation of forward rate of return, he uses Free Cash Flow for the calculation. Yacktman explained the forward rate of return concept in detail in his interview with GuruFocus. Yacktman defines forward rate of return as the normalized free cash flow yield plus real growth plus inflation.

This is what Yacktman said in his March 2012 interview - when the S&P 500 was at 1400:

If the business is stable, this calculation is fairly straightforward. For instance, on the S&P 500 we would normalize earnings. We would then calculate what percentage of those earnings are not reinvested in the underlying businesses and are therefore free. Historically, for the S&P 500, this has been just under 50% of earnings. Currently, we expect the S&P to earn about 70 on a normalized basis, a number which is far below reported earnings due to our adjusting for record high profit margins. $70 X ½ / 1400 gives you a normalized free cash flow yield of approximately 2.5%.

The historical real growth rate of the S&P 500 (companies) is about 1.5%. Assuming an inflation rate of 2.5%, the forward rate of return on an investment in the S&P 500 is about 6.5% today (2.5% free cash flow yield plus 1.5% real growth plus 2.5% inflation).

For the growth part of the Forward Rate of Return calculation, GuruFocus uses the 5-year average growth rate of EBITDA per share as the growth rate, and the growth rate is always capped at 20%. For the Free Cash Flow we use per share data averaged over seven years. The reason we use seven years is because research shows that seven years is the length of the typical business cycle.

Therefore, as of Jan24, Zscaler's Forward Rate of Return (Yacktman) % is

Forward Rate of Return (Yacktman) % (Jan24)=Normalized Free Cash Flow/Price+5-Year EBITDA Growth Rate
=0/235.67+0
=0.00 %

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.


Be Aware

Free Cash Flow within a report period can be affected by management's decisions of capital spending. Therefore, it is important to look at long term when it comes to Free Cash Flow.


Zscaler Free Cash Flow Related Terms

Thank you for viewing the detailed overview of Zscaler's Free Cash Flow provided by GuruFocus.com. Please click on the following links to see related term pages.


Zscaler (Zscaler) Business Description

Traded in Other Exchanges
Address
120 Holger Way, San Jose, CA, USA, 95134
Zscaler is a software-as-a-service, or SaaS, firm focusing on providing cloud-native cybersecurity solutions to primarily enterprise customers. Zscaler's offerings can be broadly partitioned into Zscaler Internet Access, which provides secure access to external applications, and Zscaler Private Access, which provides secure access to internal applications. The firm is headquartered in San Jose, California, and went public in 2018.
Executives
Karen Blasing director 4420 ROSEWOOD DRIVE, SUITE 500, PLEASANTON CA 94588
Amit Sinha director, officer: CTO & EVP of Eng/ Cloud Ops C/O ZSCALER INC, 110 ROSE ORCHARD WAY, SAN JOSE CA 95134
Brown Andrew William Fraser director C/O GUIDEWIRE SOFTWARE, INC., 970 PARK PL, SUITE 200, SAN MATEO CA 94403
Robert Schlossman officer: Chief Legal Officer C/O ZSCALER, INC., 110 ROSE ORCHARD WAY, SAN JOSE CA 95134
Dali Rajic officer: Pres Go-To-Mkt/ Chief Rev Ofcr C/O APPDYNAMICS INC, 303 SECOND STREET NORTH TOWER, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94107
Syam Nair officer: CTO 120 HOLGER WAY, SAN JOSE CA 95134
Jagtar Singh Chaudhry director, 10 percent owner, officer: President, CEO & Chairman C/O ZSCALER, INC., 110 ROSE ORCHARD WAY, SAN JOSE CA 95134
Remo Canessa officer: Chief Financial Officer C/O ZSCALER, INC., 110 ROSE ORCHARD WAY, SAN JOSE CA 95134
Scott C Darling director C/O ZSCALER INC, 110 ROSE ORCHARD WAY, SAN JOSE CA 95134
Charles H Giancarlo director 170 WEST TASMAN DRIVE, SAN JOSE X1 95134
Ajay Mangal 10 percent owner C/O ZSCALER INC, 110 ROSE ORCHARD WAY, SAN JOSE CA 95134
Eileen Naughton director C/O GOOGLE INC., 76 NINTH AVENUE, 4TH FLOOR, NEW YORK NY 10011
Manoj Apte officer: Chief Strategy Officer C/O ZSCALER INC, 110 ROSE ORCHARD WAY, SAN JOSE CA 95134
David Schneider director C/O DATA DOMAIN, INC., 2300 CENTRAL EXPRESSWAY, SANTA CLARA CA 95050
Lane Bess director C/O ZSCALER INC, 110 ROSE ORCHARD WAY, SAN JOSE CA 95134