Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) Shares Sold by California Public Employees Retirement System

California Public Employees Retirement System decreased its stake in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 64.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 65,066 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 118,693 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Qualys were worth $9,124,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of QLYS. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Qualys by 21.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,399 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $7,374,000 after acquiring an additional 10,170 shares in the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 54.9% in the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 6,199 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $796,000 after purchasing an additional 2,197 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 56.2% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 439 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the period. iSAM Funds UK Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Qualys in the 3rd quarter valued at about $238,000. Finally, Zacks Investment Management grew its stake in Qualys by 14.2% during the 3rd quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 11,333 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,456,000 after buying an additional 1,413 shares during the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

QLYS has been the subject of a number of research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price objective on Qualys from $170.00 to $163.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Qualys from $162.00 to $135.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Qualys in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $120.00 target price for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Qualys presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $144.36.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In other Qualys news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.17, for a total value of $995,190.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 246,144 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,994,292.48. This represents a 2.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 524 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.38, for a total value of $67,795.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 65,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,416,557.14. This represents a 0.80 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 24,960 shares of company stock valued at $3,465,246. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Price Performance

Qualys stock opened at $118.59 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $133.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $136.49. Qualys, Inc. has a 1-year low of $116.67 and a 1-year high of $174.20. The company has a market cap of $4.33 billion, a PE ratio of 25.50 and a beta of 0.71.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by ($0.16). Qualys had a return on equity of 38.52% and a net margin of 28.59%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.