10 Best Consensus Buy-Rated Stocks to Invest in

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1. Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS)

Consensus Rating: Buy

Potential upside: 80.06%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 50

On February 13, 2026, Bernstein analyst Peter Weed upgraded Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) to Outperform from Market Perform with a price target of $228. The firm cited valuation for the upgrade, calling Zscaler the “cheapest” cybersecurity vendor. Bernstein said growth is expected to fall below 20% by 2028 and decline through 15% within five years, but added that the company should continue adding new customers, albeit at a 25%–35% slower pace than pre-2024 levels.

On February 11, 2026, RBC Capital analyst Matthew Hedberg lowered his price target on Zscaler to $250 from $290 and maintained an Outperform rating as part of a broader Q4 software preview. The firm cited negative investor sentiment toward software and said it prefers companies with a clearer path to AI monetization and consolidation across cyber, data and infrastructure, and vertical SaaS. RBC also said it is updating its price target models to reflect significant year-to-date multiple compression.

On February 6, 2026, Zscaler announced the acquisition of SquareX to expand its zero-trust capabilities into the browser. The company said the deal is intended to redefine browser security by enabling lightweight extensions across any browser, removing the need for third-party browsers. The acquisition closed on February 5, and financial terms were not disclosed.

Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) operates as a cloud security company, offering products such as Zscaler Internet Access, Zscaler Private Access, Zero Trust Firewall, Cloud Sandbox, and Zero Trust Browser.

While we acknowledge the potential of ZS to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ZS and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

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