Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Stock Moved Down to “Hold” by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Monday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Northland Securities set a $208.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Wedbush downgraded shares of Qualys from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $175.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Thursday, September 10th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Qualys from $100.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Qualys has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $183.62.

Qualys Trading Down 7.4%

NASDAQ:QLYS opened at $207.60 on Monday. Qualys has a 1-year low of $74.51 and a 1-year high of $235.54. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $188.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $135.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.27 and a beta of 0.60.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $182.18 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $178.57 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.52% and a net margin of 29.38%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.68 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Qualys will post 5.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Qualys news, insider Bruce Posey sold 881 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.52, for a total value of $166,967.12. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 57,807 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,955,582.64. This represents a 1.50% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 3,200 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.05, for a total value of $544,160.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 180,338 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,666,476.90. This represents a 1.74% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 9,013 shares of company stock worth $1,635,261. 0.72% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of QLYS. Root Financial Partners LLC increased its holdings in Qualys by 206.2% in the 1st quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 297 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Kilter Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Qualys in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Continuum Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Qualys in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Qualys during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $51,000. Finally, Allworth Financial LP bought a new stake in shares of Qualys during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $64,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

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.