Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Royal Bank of Canada Analyst Says

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) had its price objective hoisted by equities researchers at Royal Bank of Canada from $150.00 to $162.00 in a research report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “sector perform” rating on the software maker’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 7.90% from the stock’s current price.

QLYS has been the topic of several other research reports. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $130.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group cut their price target 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. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 3rd. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Qualys from $116.00 to $115.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Qualys from $123.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $148.85.

Qualys Trading Up 17.1 %

Shares of Qualys stock traded up $21.91 on Wednesday, reaching $150.14. 884,903 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 431,807. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $124.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $136.16. Qualys has a 1-year low of $119.17 and a 1-year high of $206.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.53 billion, a PE ratio of 33.13 and a beta of 0.47.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.21, for a total value of $876,470.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 179,649 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,493,851.29. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 616 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.54, for a total value of $76,100.64. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 86,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,695,599.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.21, for a total transaction of $876,470.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 179,649 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,493,851.29. The trade was 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 valued at $1,360,140 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Qualys by 294.7% in the 2nd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 225 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in Qualys by 149.0% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 239 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP bought a new stake in Qualys in the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. DT Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in Qualys in the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its stake in Qualys by 53.6% during the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 639 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $82,000 after buying an additional 223 shares during the period. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.