Wolfe Research Upgrades Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) to “Peer Perform”

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wolfe Research from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC assumed coverage on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 3rd. UBS Group increased their price objective on Qualys from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Qualys from $123.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $152.80.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of QLYS opened at $154.56 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $127.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $135.64. The company has a market cap of $5.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.04 and a beta of 0.47. Qualys has a 12 month low of $119.17 and a 12 month high of $206.35.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Qualys had a return on equity of 40.24% and a net margin of 28.72%. The business had revenue of $153.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $150.74 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.24 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Qualys will post 0.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 616 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.54, for a total transaction of $76,100.64. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 86,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,695,599.04. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Qualys news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 616 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.54, for a total transaction of $76,100.64. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 86,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,695,599.04. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,330 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.80, for a total transaction of $164,654.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 55,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,885,508.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,919 shares of company stock worth $1,360,140 in the last three months. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Qualys by 29.6% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,809 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $232,000 after buying an additional 413 shares in the last quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Qualys by 8.3% during the third quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 373,995 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $48,043,000 after acquiring an additional 28,802 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. lifted its holdings in Qualys by 40.8% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 60,146 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $7,726,000 after acquiring an additional 17,440 shares during the period. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. purchased a new position in Qualys in the third quarter worth $252,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Qualys by 428.9% in the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 18,256 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,345,000 after purchasing an additional 14,804 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

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.