Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) Receives $137.50 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) has been assigned an average rating of “Reduce” from the seventeen brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twelve have issued a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $137.50.

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on QLYS shares. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their target price on shares of Qualys from $163.00 to $158.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Qualys from $145.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Qualys from $120.00 to $90.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Scotiabank set a $142.00 price objective on Qualys and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In other Qualys news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,018 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.75, for a total transaction of $129,031.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 100,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,791,610. This represents a 1.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.25, for a total transaction of $1,791,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 217,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,530,828.50. This trade represents a 5.22% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 46,597 shares of company stock worth $6,517,773 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 82.7% in the 1st quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 369 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 88.1% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 333 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 156 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Qualys in the 4th quarter valued at about $54,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 52.4% in the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 436 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 27.9% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 500 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $63,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of QLYS opened at $138.47 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $5.03 billion, a PE ratio of 28.32 and a beta of 0.62. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $139.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $134.57. Qualys has a 1-year low of $112.61 and a 1-year high of $170.00.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $159.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $157.05 million. Qualys had a net margin of 29.19% and a return on equity of 38.05%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.45 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Qualys 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.