Valero Energy Corporation vs Zscaler Inc — how do they compare? Valero Energy Corporation trades at $314.8 (market cap $93.03B), while Zscaler Inc trades at $148.6 (market cap $24.23B). The key difference: Valero Energy Corporation is far larger — about 3.8× Zscaler Inc's market cap, and Valero Energy Corporation pays a 1.53% dividend while Zscaler Inc pays none. Which is the better fit depends on your goals.
| VLO | ZS | |
|---|---|---|
Market Cap | $93.03B | $24.23B |
Sector | Energy | Technology |
52-Week High | $313.31 | $336.27 |
52-Week Low | $131.77 | $118.05 |
Enterprise Value | $98.79B | $22.55B |
Dividend Yield | 1.53% | — |
Signals from Pluang's Aura AI — not financial advice
Valero Energy (VLO) trades at $314.80, up 1.66% today and near its 52-week high, with a bullish technical outlook supported by strong moving averages. The stock has consistently beaten earnings estimates in recent quarters, with Q2 2026 expected at $10.13 EPS. Revenue declined to $122.69B in 2025, but net income margin improved to 3.37%, while valuation ratios like P/E of 22.89 and P/S of 0.77 reflect moderate pricing relative to peers. Recent news highlights robust refining margins and dividend declarations of $1.20 per share.
VLO's outlook is positive due to elevated crack spreads and strong fuel demand, though revenue declines pose a risk. Analyst consensus is bullish with a $285.38 price target, but high RSI levels suggest potential near-term pullbacks. Investment appeal lies in earnings momentum and shareholder returns, balanced against exposure to volatile energy markets and refining margins.
Zscaler trades at $148.72, down 0.78% on the day, with strong technical momentum showing bullish moving average signals and key support at $147. The company demonstrates robust revenue growth, increasing from $1.1B in 2022 to $2.67B in 2025, while narrowing net losses from -$390M to -$41M. Recent earnings beats and accelerating Zero Trust adoption position Zscaler for continued enterprise security market share gains amid growing cybersecurity spending trends.
Zscaler presents a compelling growth story with 79% analyst buy ratings and a $192.46 price target offering 29% upside potential. However, persistent profitability challenges, rising AI infrastructure costs, and ongoing class action investigations create near-term execution risks. The stock's premium valuation at 7.5x sales requires sustained revenue acceleration to justify current levels.
Trailing returns across standard periods
Valero Energy is one of the largest independent refiners in the United States. It operates 14 refineries with a total throughput capacity of 3.2 million barrels a day in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Valero also owns 14 ethanol plants with capacity of 1.7 billion gallons of ethanol a year and holds a 50% stake in Diamond Green Diesel, which has capacity to produce 700 million gallons per year of renewable diesel.
Read more on VLO →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 →