Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) Receives $152.80 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) have received a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the eighteen analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, thirteen have issued a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $152.80.

QLYS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Qualys from $120.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Qualys from $130.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Wolfe Research raised Qualys from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Qualys from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Qualys Price Performance

QLYS opened at $139.83 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $143.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $135.91. The company has a market cap of $5.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.80 and a beta of 0.54. Qualys has a fifty-two week low of $119.17 and a fifty-two week high of $201.60.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $153.87 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $150.74 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 40.24% and a net margin of 28.72%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.24 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Qualys will post 4.34 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Qualys news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.37, for a total transaction of $209,616.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 113,652 shares in the company, valued at $17,885,415.24. This trade represents a 1.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 8,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.62, for a total value of $1,322,774.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 64,032 shares in the company, valued at $9,900,627.84. The trade was a 11.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 30,715 shares of company stock valued at $4,406,251. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qualys

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Qualys by 8.1% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 39,603 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,968,000 after purchasing an additional 2,972 shares during the period. Synovus Financial Corp grew its position in Qualys by 16.3% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 16,772 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,155,000 after buying an additional 2,356 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC grew its position in Qualys by 70.5% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 2,472 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $318,000 after buying an additional 1,022 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its stake in Qualys by 30.8% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 4,919 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $632,000 after acquiring an additional 1,159 shares during the period. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Qualys by 16.3% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,650 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $212,000 after acquiring an additional 231 shares in the last quarter. 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.