Blue Trust Inc. Grows Position in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 26.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,968 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 409 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Qualys were worth $253,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in Qualys in the 3rd quarter valued at about $445,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its position in shares of Qualys by 208.5% in the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 86,187 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $11,072,000 after buying an additional 58,252 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Qualys by 428.9% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 18,256 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,345,000 after buying an additional 14,804 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Qualys by 40.0% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 29,015 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,525,000 after buying an additional 8,291 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in Qualys by 6.8% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 63,320 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $8,134,000 after acquiring an additional 4,040 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of Qualys stock opened at $141.73 on Tuesday. Qualys, Inc. has a twelve month low of $119.17 and a twelve month high of $184.04. The stock has a market cap of $5.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.22 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $144.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $135.59.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $153.87 million during 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.24 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 4.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.49, for a total transaction of $941,430.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 225,453 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,321,173.97. The trade was a 3.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 882 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.66, for a total value of $123,180.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 62,295 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,700,119.70. This trade represents a 1.40 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 31,259 shares of company stock valued at $4,578,153. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

QLYS has been the subject of several analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Qualys from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Qualys from $130.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Qualys from $120.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Qualys from $120.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Qualys from $123.00 to $126.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three investment 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $152.80.

Qualys 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.