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

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

Several other analysts also recently commented on QLYS. Truist Financial increased their price objective on Qualys from $145.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Wedbush dropped their price target on shares of Qualys from $230.00 to $210.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Qualys in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. They issued a market perform rating and a $170.00 price objective for the company. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Qualys from $212.00 to $180.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an equal weight rating and issued a $190.00 target price on shares of Qualys in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $153.23.

Qualys Trading Down 2.5 %

NASDAQ:QLYS opened at $162.05 on Friday. Qualys has a 12 month low of $107.00 and a 12 month high of $206.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.11 and a beta of 0.51. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $167.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $175.14.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The software maker reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.26. Qualys had a return on equity of 49.06% and a net margin of 27.34%. The company had revenue of $144.57 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $144.69 million. Equities analysts predict that Qualys will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In other news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 4,120 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.62, for a total value of $690,594.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 194,481 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,598,905.22. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 723 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.76, for a total transaction of $119,121.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 100,289 shares in the company, valued at $16,523,615.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 4,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.62, for a total transaction of $690,594.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 194,481 shares in the company, valued at $32,598,905.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,315 shares of company stock valued at $1,750,397 over the last three months. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Qualys by 256.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 871,944 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $97,858,000 after buying an additional 626,998 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in Qualys by 121.9% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 360,294 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $70,719,000 after acquiring an additional 197,911 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Qualys during the fourth quarter worth approximately $14,892,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 47.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 380,609 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $58,062,000 after acquiring an additional 122,239 shares during the last quarter. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Qualys by 172.3% in the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 193,056 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $37,893,000 after purchasing an additional 122,168 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

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.