Is ZETA halal in 2026?

Zeta Global is a NYSE-listed marketing technology company built around the Zeta Marketing Platform and an associated consumer data platform, selling enterprise software that predicts consumer intent and automates omnichannel campaigns. Nothing in that description touches the prohibited categories under AAOIFI Shari'a Standard No. 21: no alcohol, pork, gambling, conventional interest-based lending, tobacco or adult content. The qualitative screen returns a pass, which is the gate that disposes of most screening questions before any arithmetic begins.

The quantitative gate has three parts and Zeta clears all of them. Interest-bearing debt must stay under 30% of market capitalization and sits at 2.6%. Interest-bearing deposits and securities must also stay under 30% of market capitalization, and that line is well clear of the limit. Income from impermissible sources must stay under 5% of revenue, and that line is well clear of the limit. The score of 94 out of 100 (grade A+) measures how much room is left against those three limits, not just whether the company passes them.

Passing does not mean there is nothing to purify. A company can clear the 5% impermissible income cap and still carry a small amount of interest income on its cash balances, and the AAOIFI mechanism for that is purification: give away the corresponding share of your return without seeking reward for it, which is a disposal rather than a charitable gift earning merit. In the Ja'fari tradition the analogous obligation is more often discharged through khums and, where the rightful owner cannot be identified, radd al-mazalim. The instinct is shared across both schools; the calculation base and timing are not, so put your own figure to your scholar or marja'.

What would change this verdict is worth knowing in advance, because the debt ratio is measured against market capitalization rather than against assets. That means a sharp fall in the share price raises the ratio without the company borrowing anything; at 2.6% against a 30% ceiling, the live figure shows how much headroom remains before that matters. The likelier route to a changed verdict is the impermissible income line moving with a new filing, or a change in the product mix. Each new quarterly filing is re-screened, and the stock page carries the date of the current screen.

Read the live page rather than this one before acting. HalalScreener screens US-listed stocks, ETFs and crypto (7,100+), plus major global companies via their US ADRs, against AAOIFI Standard No. 21, and re-screens continuously as filings arrive, so a dated article is a snapshot and the stock page is the current answer. We screen against a published standard; we do not certify, and we do not issue fatwa.