StockNews.com Upgrades Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) to “Buy”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $146.00 price objective (down from $150.00) on shares of Qualys in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Qualys from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Qualys from $130.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Qualys from $120.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $146.57.

Qualys Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of Qualys stock opened at $143.76 on Friday. Qualys has a 12-month low of $119.17 and a 12-month high of $174.31. The stock has a market cap of $5.26 billion, a PE ratio of 30.92 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a 50-day moving average of $141.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $135.37.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by ($0.16). Qualys had a net margin of 28.59% and a return on equity of 39.64%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Qualys will post 4.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In other Qualys news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 8,555 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.62, for a total value of $1,322,774.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 64,032 shares in the company, valued at $9,900,627.84. This trade represents a 11.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.49, for a total transaction of $941,430.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 225,453 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,321,173.97. This trade represents a 3.01 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 29,288 shares of company stock worth $4,209,716 in the last quarter. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qualys

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 157.5% during the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 59,950 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $8,406,000 after acquiring an additional 36,669 shares in the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 17.2% during the 4th quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 28,500 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,996,000 after acquiring an additional 4,187 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 10.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 571,016 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $80,068,000 after acquiring an additional 52,256 shares in the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Qualys during the 4th quarter valued at $54,000. Finally, Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Qualys during the 4th quarter valued at $6,983,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Company Profile

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.