Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Makes New $1.72 Million Investment in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise bought a new position in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 13,693 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $1,724,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in QLYS. LPL Financial LLC grew its position in Qualys by 34.1% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 35,136 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,927,000 after acquiring an additional 8,935 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Qualys in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $14,110,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its position in shares of Qualys by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 5,463 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $766,000 after purchasing an additional 575 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of Qualys by 32.5% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 51,934 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $7,282,000 after purchasing an additional 12,741 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Qualys by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 40,348 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $5,658,000 after acquiring an additional 745 shares during the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Qualys Stock Performance

NASDAQ:QLYS opened at $135.53 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $140.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $134.63. The company has a market cap of $4.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.72 and a beta of 0.62. Qualys, Inc. has a 52-week low of $112.61 and a 52-week high of $170.00.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.21. Qualys had a return on equity of 38.05% and a net margin of 29.19%. The company had revenue of $159.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $157.05 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.45 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Qualys news, Director Wendy Pfeiffer sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.45, for a total transaction of $27,890.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 11,282 shares in the company, valued at $1,573,274.90. This represents a 1.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 787 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.23, for a total value of $116,657.01. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 99,288 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,717,460.24. The trade was a 0.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 46,598 shares of company stock valued at $6,529,928 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on QLYS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Qualys from $122.00 to $117.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Qualys from $131.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 22nd. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price 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, Wedbush reduced their price target on Qualys from $160.00 to $145.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $137.50.

Qualys 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.