Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the sixteen brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have assigned a hold recommendation, two have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $143.5714.

QLYS has been the subject of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Qualys from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Qualys from $145.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Berenberg Bank initiated coverage on shares of Qualys in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. They set a “hold” rating and a $165.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $117.00 target price on shares of Qualys in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Qualys from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In other news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 3,077 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.99, for a total value of $449,211.23. Following the transaction, the insider owned 71,776 shares in the company, valued at $10,478,578.24. This represents a 4.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.12, for a total transaction of $1,250,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 252,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,191,936. The trade was a 3.25% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 37,628 shares of company stock valued at $5,343,650. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of QLYS. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Qualys in the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in Qualys by 451.0% during the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 270 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP increased its position in Qualys by 86.8% in the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 284 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 132 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. bought a new position in shares of Qualys in the second quarter worth about $44,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Qualys by 127.0% during the 4th quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 345 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ QLYS opened at $127.52 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $138.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $135.40. Qualys has a 52-week low of $112.61 and a 52-week high of $155.47. The company has a market cap of $4.57 billion, a PE ratio of 24.71 and a beta of 0.53.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The software maker reported $1.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.56 by $0.30. Qualys had a net margin of 28.96% and a return on equity of 37.40%. The company had revenue of $169.88 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $166.30 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.56 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Qualys will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Qualys

Qualys, Inc (NASDAQ: QLYS) is a leading provider of cloud-based security and compliance solutions designed to help organizations streamline their IT security programs. Operating on a unified, modular platform, Qualys offers continuous visibility into global IT assets through a combination of lightweight cloud agents and on-premises scanner appliances. The platform supports an array of security and compliance use cases, enabling real-time detection of vulnerabilities, policy violations and misconfigurations across on-premises, cloud and hybrid environments.

The company’s flagship Qualys Cloud Platform delivers a suite of integrated applications, including vulnerability management, detection and response (VMDR), policy compliance, web application scanning, file integrity monitoring, asset inventory and container security.