SBI Securities Co. Ltd. Acquires Shares of 202 Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 202 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $28,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in QLYS. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Qualys by 1,386.2% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 355,699 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $49,876,000 after purchasing an additional 331,766 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its stake in shares of Qualys by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,049,623 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $147,178,000 after buying an additional 123,530 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Qualys by 208.5% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 86,187 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $11,072,000 after buying an additional 58,252 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of Qualys by 101.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 112,214 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $14,415,000 after buying an additional 56,613 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CDAM UK Ltd grew its stake in shares of Qualys by 8.3% during the third quarter. CDAM UK Ltd now owns 502,913 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $64,604,000 after buying an additional 38,509 shares during the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.49, for a total transaction of $941,430.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 225,453 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,321,173.97. This represents a 3.01 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 525 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.48, for a total transaction of $73,227.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 65,373 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,118,226.04. This represents a 0.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 26,926 shares of company stock worth $3,745,742 in the last quarter. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $146.00 target price (down previously from $150.00) on shares of Qualys in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their price target on shares of Qualys from $170.00 to $163.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $140.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Loop Capital cut their price target on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Qualys presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $146.57.

Qualys Price Performance

QLYS opened at $123.09 on Thursday. Qualys, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $119.17 and a fifty-two week high of $174.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.49 billion, a PE ratio of 26.47 and a beta of 0.56. The company’s 50-day moving average is $137.19 and its 200 day moving average is $135.98.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by ($0.16). Qualys had a return on equity of 38.52% and a net margin of 28.59%. As a group, analysts expect that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 EPS for the current year.

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.