Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Price Target Raised to $140.00 at Royal Bank of Canada

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) had its price target upped by Royal Bank of Canada from $131.00 to $140.00 in a report published on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a sector perform rating on the software maker’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on QLYS. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 12th. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Wedbush decreased their price objective on shares of Qualys from $160.00 to $145.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their target price on Qualys from $163.00 to $158.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $146.00 price objective (down previously from $150.00) on shares of Qualys in a report on Monday, February 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $137.50.

Qualys Stock Down 0.9 %

Qualys stock opened at $132.31 on Wednesday. Qualys has a twelve month low of $112.61 and a twelve month high of $170.00. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $125.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $135.96. The company has a market cap of $4.81 billion, a PE ratio of 28.45 and a beta of 0.61.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $159.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $157.05 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 38.52% and a net margin of 28.59%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.45 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Qualys will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 540 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.86, for a total value of $63,644.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 64,513 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,603,502.18. This represents a 0.83 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 4,487 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.00, for a total transaction of $628,180.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 112,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,785,980. The trade was a 3.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,156 shares of company stock worth $4,164,721 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qualys

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Qualys in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Qualys during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its stake in Qualys by 88.1% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Qualys in the fourth quarter worth $54,000. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp increased its position in shares of Qualys by 33.9% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 391 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.