Core and Main Inc vs Zscaler Inc — how do they compare? Core and Main Inc trades at $44.36 (market cap $8.46B), while Zscaler Inc trades at $148.04 (market cap $24.59B). The key difference: Zscaler Inc is far larger — about 2.9× Core and Main Inc's market cap, and Zscaler Inc is trading nearer its 52-week high, Core and Main Inc nearer its low. Which is the better fit depends on your goals.
| CNM | ZS | |
|---|---|---|
Market Cap | $8.46B | $24.59B |
Sector | Technology | Technology |
52-Week High | $66.98 | $336.27 |
52-Week Low | $44.29 | $118.05 |
Enterprise Value | $10.76B | $22.92B |
Signals from Pluang's Aura AI — not financial advice
Core & Main (CNM) trades at $44.74, down 2.44% today, amid bearish technical signals but strong fundamentals. The stock shows consistent earnings beats, with Q1 2026 EPS of $0.72 exceeding expectations, and maintains solid profitability with a 23.73% ROE. Recent news highlights municipal strength and margin gains, though residential segments face weakness. Cash flow trends improved in 2026 projections, with net cash flow rising to $142M from $7M in 2025.
The outlook is mixed: analyst consensus leans bullish with 57% buy ratings, but technical indicators signal near-term pressure. Key risks include industry headwinds like high operating costs and residential market softness. Investors should weigh strong fundamentals against current bearish momentum for entry timing.
Zscaler trades at $141.82, up 1.83% with bearish technical signals despite recent earnings beats. Revenue growth remains strong at $2.67B for 2025, though the company continues to report net losses. Analyst consensus is overwhelmingly bullish with a $192.64 price target, but multiple class action investigations and high valuation metrics create headwinds.
The stock faces near-term pressure from technical weakness and profitability challenges, but long-term prospects remain supported by cybersecurity demand and Zero Trust adoption. Key risks include ongoing litigation, AI infrastructure costs, and the transition to profitability amid slowing growth projections.
Trailing returns across standard periods
Latest headlines on both assets
Core & Main is a leading US distributor of water, wastewater, storm drainage, and fire protection products. It provides essential infrastructure solutions to municipalities, private water companies, and contractors.
Read more on CNM →Zscaler is a security-as-a-service firm that offers its customers cloud-delivered solutions for protecting user devices and data. The firm leverages its position in 150 colocation data centers to deliver traditionally appliance-based security functionality, such as firewalls and sandboxes, as a completely cloud-native platform. The firm focuses on large enterprise customers and offers two primary product suites: Zscaler Internet Access, which securely connects users to externally managed application and websites (such as Salesforce and Google), and Zscaler Private Access, which securely connects users to internally managed applications. Both product suites encompass a broad gamut of capabilities situated across the traditional security stack.
Read more on ZS →