Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Price Target Cut to $123.00 by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) had its price target lowered by Morgan Stanley from $136.00 to $123.00 in a research note published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an underweight rating on the software maker’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Qualys from $170.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Westpark Capital restated a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Monday, August 5th. DA Davidson upgraded Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Northland Securities restated a “market perform” rating and set a $140.00 price target (down from $150.00) on shares of Qualys in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Qualys has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $144.23.

Qualys Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of Qualys stock opened at $121.12 on Wednesday. Qualys has a 12-month low of $119.32 and a 12-month high of $206.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.46 billion, a PE ratio of 26.68 and a beta of 0.46. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $124.42 and its 200-day moving average is $138.39.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $1.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.20. Qualys had a return on equity of 44.80% and a net margin of 29.36%. The firm had revenue of $148.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $148.80 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.95 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Qualys will post 3.94 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In other Qualys news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.21, for a total transaction of $876,470.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 179,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,493,851.29. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Qualys news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.21, for a total transaction of $876,470.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 179,649 shares in the company, valued at $22,493,851.29. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,330 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.80, for a total value of $164,654.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 55,618 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,885,508.40. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 11,535 shares of company stock valued at $1,442,641. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qualys

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new position in Qualys during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $18,844,000. Roberts Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Qualys in the first quarter valued at approximately $863,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 96.4% in the first quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 30,656 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $5,116,000 after acquiring an additional 15,045 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 36.6% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 20,576 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,374,000 after acquiring an additional 5,508 shares during the period. Finally, Norden Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 1,806.6% in the first quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 81,871 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $13,662,000 after acquiring an additional 77,577 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

About Qualys

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.