Royal Bank of Canada Cuts Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Price Target to $135.00

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) had its price objective dropped by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $162.00 to $135.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “sector perform” rating on the software maker’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective indicates a potential downside of 0.41% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on QLYS. Scotiabank lowered their target price on Qualys from $150.00 to $140.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Qualys from $120.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Qualys from $120.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Qualys from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group cut their target price on shares of Qualys from $170.00 to $163.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $149.87.

Qualys Price Performance

Qualys stock traded down $5.15 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $135.56. The stock had a trading volume of 440,087 shares, compared to its average volume of 388,192. Qualys has a twelve month low of $119.17 and a twelve month high of $174.73. The firm has a market cap of $4.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.91 and a beta of 0.56. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $143.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $135.70.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.35 by ($0.16). Qualys had a return on equity of 40.24% and a net margin of 28.72%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Qualys will post 4.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.37, for a total value of $209,616.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 113,652 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,885,415.24. The trade was a 1.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 855 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.24, for a total value of $121,615.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 63,177 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,986,296.48. This trade represents a 1.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,259 shares of company stock worth $4,578,153 over the last three months. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Amalgamated Bank boosted its position in Qualys by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 16,640 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,333,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Financial Enhancement Group LLC boosted its holdings in Qualys by 1.5% during the third quarter. Financial Enhancement Group LLC now owns 6,100 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $784,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in Qualys by 33.9% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 391 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Qualys by 12.7% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,089 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $153,000 after buying an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, West Coast Financial LLC lifted its position in Qualys by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. West Coast Financial LLC now owns 23,177 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,977,000 after buying an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. 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.