Cerity Partners LLC Acquires 1,981 Shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Cerity Partners LLC grew its holdings in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 80.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,438 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,981 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Qualys were worth $559,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in QLYS. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Qualys by 24.4% during the first quarter. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 41,370 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $5,210,000 after acquiring an additional 8,120 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Qualys by 4.0% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 8,143 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,036,000 after buying an additional 310 shares during the period. Novem Group grew its holdings in Qualys by 35.0% during the 1st quarter. Novem Group now owns 7,008 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $883,000 after acquiring an additional 1,817 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Qualys by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 110,027 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $13,856,000 after purchasing an additional 1,177 shares during the period. Finally, Verity Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Qualys in the 1st quarter worth $360,000. Institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on QLYS shares. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price objective on shares of Qualys from $163.00 to $158.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Qualys from $122.00 to $117.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley cut 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. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price 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, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, June 22nd. Three investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat, Qualys currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $137.50.

Insider Transactions at Qualys

In related news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,018 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.75, for a total value of $129,031.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 100,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,791,610. This represents a 1.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 541 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.11, for a total transaction of $75,799.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 60,643 shares in the company, valued at $8,496,690.73. This trade represents a 0.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 46,598 shares of company stock worth $6,529,928 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ QLYS opened at $136.81 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $140.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $134.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.97 billion, a PE ratio of 27.98 and a beta of 0.62. Qualys, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $112.61 and a fifty-two week high of $170.00.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.21. Qualys had a return on equity of 38.05% and a net margin of 29.19%. The business had revenue of $159.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $157.05 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.45 earnings per share. Qualys’s quarterly revenue was up 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities 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.