Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) Given Consensus Rating of “Reduce” by Analysts

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the eighteen research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $152.80.

A number of research firms recently commented on QLYS. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Qualys from $150.00 to $162.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Qualys from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Needham & Company LLC started coverage on Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Westpark Capital reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Qualys from $123.00 to $126.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Qualys Trading Up 0.9 %

Qualys stock opened at $143.14 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.53 and a beta of 0.57. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $144.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $135.63. Qualys has a 1-year low of $119.17 and a 1-year high of $199.37.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $153.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $150.74 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 40.24% and a net margin of 28.72%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.24 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Qualys will post 4.34 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Jeffrey P. Hank sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.31, for a total value of $585,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 12,666 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,853,162.46. The trade was a 24.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.66, for a total transaction of $1,047,620.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 225,453 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,741,295.98. This represents a 3.01 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 31,259 shares of company stock worth $4,578,153. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Qualys by 45.3% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 168,400 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $24,014,000 after acquiring an additional 52,495 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Qualys by 13.5% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 4,590 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $655,000 after purchasing an additional 545 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL grew its holdings in shares of Qualys by 2.1% in the second quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 31,800 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,535,000 after purchasing an additional 642 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 85.1% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 38,599 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $5,481,000 after buying an additional 17,742 shares during the period. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd raised its holdings in Qualys by 38.6% during the 2nd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 3,824 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $545,000 after buying an additional 1,065 shares during the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Qualys

Qualys, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud-based platform delivering information technology (IT), security, and compliance solutions in the United States and internationally. It offers Qualys Cloud Apps, which include Cybersecurity Asset Management and External Attack Surface Management; Vulnerability Management, Detection and Response; Web Application Scanning; Patch Management; Custom Assessment and Remediation; Multi-Vector Endpoint Detection and Response; Context Extended Detection and Response; Policy Compliance; File Integrity Monitoring; and Qualys TotalCloud, as well as Cloud Workload Protection, Cloud Detection and Response, Cloud Security Posture Management, Infrastructure as Code, and Container Security.