Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) CFO Sells 2,659 Shares of Stock

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 2,659 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $209.66, for a total transaction of $557,485.94. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 68,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,300,489.28. This represents a 3.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Qualys Stock Up 1.4%

Shares of Qualys stock traded up $2.97 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $210.57. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 697,368 shares, compared to its average volume of 756,423. Qualys, Inc. has a 1-year low of $74.51 and a 1-year high of $235.54. The business has a fifty day moving average of $188.93 and a 200 day moving average of $135.32. The company has a market capitalization of $7.28 billion, a PE ratio of 36.43 and a beta of 0.60.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $182.18 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $178.57 million. Qualys had a net margin of 29.38% and a return on equity of 37.52%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.68 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qualys

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Qualys in the second quarter worth about $792,316,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Qualys during the second quarter valued at approximately $197,624,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in Qualys by 127.0% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 832,796 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $73,161,000 after buying an additional 465,952 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Qualys by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 763,099 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $67,041,000 after buying an additional 45,718 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in Qualys by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 497,600 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $43,714,000 after buying an additional 17,300 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

QLYS has been the subject of several recent research reports. Scotiabank increased their price target on Qualys from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Wall Street Zen cut Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Weiss Ratings raised Qualys from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Truist Financial upped their target price on Qualys from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Qualys presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $183.62.

About Qualys

Qualys, Inc is a cloud-based cybersecurity company that helps organizations identify, assess and manage security risks across information technology environments. Its platform is designed to provide visibility into assets, vulnerabilities, configurations and compliance requirements across on-premises infrastructure, endpoints, networks, applications and cloud environments.

The company’s offerings include vulnerability management, detection and response, policy compliance, asset inventory, web application security, endpoint security and cloud security capabilities.