Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) Stake Reduced by Nisa Investment Advisors LLC

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 25.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 814 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 275 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Qualys were worth $103,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its stake in Qualys by 88.1% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 333 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 156 shares during the period. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Qualys during the fourth quarter valued at $54,000. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its holdings in shares of Qualys by 27.9% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 500 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $63,000 after buying an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. Huntington National Bank lifted its stake in Qualys by 15.6% in the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 932 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $131,000 after acquiring an additional 126 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Qualys by 246.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 973 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $123,000 after acquiring an additional 692 shares during the period. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Qualys Stock Performance

NASDAQ QLYS opened at $139.31 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $139.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $134.56. Qualys, Inc. has a twelve month low of $112.61 and a twelve month high of $170.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.06 billion, a PE ratio of 28.49 and a beta of 0.62.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $159.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $157.05 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 38.05% and a net margin of 29.19%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.45 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In other Qualys news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.25, for a total transaction of $1,791,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 217,962 shares in the company, valued at $32,530,828.50. This represents a 5.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Jeffrey P. Hank sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.93, for a total transaction of $515,720.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 12,666 shares in the company, valued at $1,633,027.38. This represents a 24.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 46,597 shares of company stock worth $6,517,773. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on QLYS. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their target price on Qualys from $163.00 to $158.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Qualys from $122.00 to $117.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Qualys from $145.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on Qualys from $131.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Qualys from $120.00 to $90.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $137.50.

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.