Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Research Coverage Started at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) in a report issued on Tuesday, Marketbeat reports. The firm issued an underweight rating and a $120.00 price target on the software maker’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price objective on shares of Qualys from $170.00 to $163.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Qualys from $162.00 to $135.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Northland Securities restated 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. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Two equities 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $146.14.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of Qualys stock opened at $128.86 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $136.11 and a 200 day moving average of $136.03. The firm has a market cap of $4.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.71 and a beta of 0.56. Qualys has a 1 year low of $119.17 and a 1 year high of $174.20.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.35 by ($0.16). Qualys had a net margin of 28.59% and a return on equity of 38.52%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Qualys will post 3.85 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Qualys news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 882 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.66, for a total transaction of $123,180.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 62,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,700,119.70. The trade was a 1.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 26,071 shares of company stock valued at $3,624,127 over the last three months. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Qualys by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,312,662 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $604,721,000 after acquiring an additional 131,339 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Qualys by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,262,931 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $178,445,000 after acquiring an additional 16,369 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its holdings in shares of Qualys by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,049,623 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $147,178,000 after acquiring an additional 123,530 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of Qualys by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 954,583 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $133,852,000 after acquiring an additional 88,347 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Qualys by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 920,163 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $129,025,000 after acquiring an additional 38,880 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.