Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Hits New 12-Month Low – Should You Sell?

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) shares hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $119.17 and last traded at $119.24, with a volume of 313727 shares. The stock had previously closed at $120.73.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on QLYS shares. Wedbush reduced their target price on Qualys from $190.00 to $160.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 3rd. Piper Sandler lowered their target price 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. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Qualys from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Westpark Capital reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Qualys currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $144.23.

Qualys Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $4.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.56 and a beta of 0.46. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $124.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $137.47.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $1.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.20. Qualys had a net margin of 29.36% and a return on equity of 44.80%. The firm had revenue of $148.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $148.80 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.95 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 179,649 shares in the company, valued at $22,493,851.29. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Qualys news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.21, for a total value of $876,470.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 179,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,493,851.29. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 616 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 86,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,695,599.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 11,535 shares of company stock valued at $1,442,641. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Qualys by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,839,801 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $640,748,000 after purchasing an additional 83,504 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its stake in Qualys by 14.5% in the third quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 926,093 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $118,966,000 after buying an additional 117,079 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Qualys by 50.9% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 501,847 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $83,743,000 after buying an additional 169,293 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in Qualys by 15.3% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 474,100 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $67,607,000 after acquiring an additional 63,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Qualys by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 439,434 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $62,663,000 after acquiring an additional 3,357 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.