Friday was a useful reminder that cybersecurity momentum evaporates fast. SentinelOne cut its full-year EPS guidance 11%, and CrowdStrike fell roughly 4% in a sympathy move despite having just reported a strong quarter of its own. Zscaler and Okta both slipped as well, while the broader S&P 500 held flat, isolating the damage squarely inside the security sector. That is the backdrop walking into one of the most asymmetric setups in the options market right now.
Zscaler closes its fiscal year Thursday. The company reports Q4 and full fiscal 2026 results after the close on September 3, with the call at 4:30 p.m. Eastern. Before anyone obsesses over Q4, understand the structure of the event. The revenue and profit lines are close to spoken for. What moves the stock is the first formal fiscal 2027 outlook, because three months ago, that framework did more damage than any beat could repair.
The Trade Behind the Trade
The May episode is the instructive one. When Zscaler last reported after the close on May 26, it beat both lines. Revenue of $850.5 million topped the $835.7 million consensus, and adjusted EPS of $1.08 cleared the $1.01 estimate. The stock cratered the next day anyway.
Management paired the beat with an early fiscal 2027 framework calling for ARR and revenue growth of roughly 16% to 17%, a sharp step down from the roughly 25% pace the business had been running.
Now September 3 arrives with that same 16%-17% growth framework still sitting in plain sight. In May, the market treated 16% to 17% as a verdict on the business. On September 3, management either firms that number up and gives investors a reason it was a floor, or confirms the slowdown just as the stock has recovered off the June lows. Those are genuinely different outcomes. The Q4 line items will not tell you which one you are in. The FY27 guide will.
Technical and Fundamental Alignment
Zscaler shares surged roughly 9.9% in the days following strong peer earnings, with expectations now running at 22.5% year-over-year EPS growth for the September 3 report. That move higher is exactly the problem: the stock has already shifted to price in a constructive outcome on the current quarter. The options market has noticed.
Zscaler shares could move 13% when the company releases results on September 3, based on options data compiled by Bloomberg. That implied range deserves context. On May 26, shares fell more than 31% the next day after earnings, while options had suggested only about a 13% move. On September 3, 2024, shares fell 20.6% against a 10.6% implied move. The market has consistently underpriced bad outcomes in ZS. It has also underpriced good ones: the company has exceeded the options-implied move in five of its past eight earnings announcements.
Adding one more complication: Broadcom reports fiscal third-quarter 2026 results on September 2, one day before Zscaler. The tone that Broadcom sets, positive or negative, will color how the market receives every technology name heading into Thursday’s close.
Options Perspective
The structure that fits this moment is a bull call spread expiring after the September 3 report. You define risk to the premium paid, you reduce the sting of any post-earnings implied volatility collapse relative to a naked long call, and you still participate meaningfully if management delivers a revised FY27 framework above that 16%-17% floor. The short upper call absorbs the cost of elevated pre-earnings implied volatility.
What invalidates the thesis fast: a reiteration of 16%-17% with no upward qualifier, or any further commentary on go-to-market disruption. A second mention of sales-leadership instability would likely produce a move that makes the implied 13% look conservative, as it did in May.
The Beast Verdict
This is not a trade on whether Zscaler beats Q4 revenue by a point. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates in each of the last four quarters, so a beat on those lines is close to the base case. The trade is entirely about whether management reframes FY27 growth as a conservative starting point or lets 16%-17% stand as the ceiling. One number, one call, one five-day window. A bull call spread with defined risk captures that asymmetry without handing the options seller a gift via uncapped premium exposure into a group that just reminded you on Friday how fast the floor can disappear.
