Eagle Asset Management Inc. Sells 13,193 Shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Eagle Asset Management Inc. reduced its stake in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 26.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 36,642 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 13,193 shares during the quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. owned approximately 0.10% of Qualys worth $4,707,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in Qualys by 100.7% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 367,470 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $52,401,000 after acquiring an additional 184,403 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Qualys by 95.7% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 286,005 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $40,771,000 after acquiring an additional 139,897 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its holdings in Qualys by 14.5% during the third quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 926,093 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $118,966,000 after acquiring an additional 117,079 shares during the period. Hantz Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in Qualys during the second quarter valued at about $10,132,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Qualys by 25.6% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 315,970 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $44,994,000 after acquiring an additional 64,394 shares during the period. 99.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on QLYS shares. DA Davidson raised their price target on Qualys from $120.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Qualys from $116.00 to $115.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Qualys from $123.00 to $126.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Qualys from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Westpark Capital restated a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Qualys currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $152.80.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 616 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.54, for a total transaction of $76,100.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 86,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,695,599.04. The trade was a 0.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.21, for a total transaction of $876,470.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 179,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,493,851.29. This represents a 3.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 21,919 shares of company stock valued at $2,993,000. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:QLYS opened at $153.37 on Monday. Qualys, Inc. has a 1 year low of $119.17 and a 1 year high of $206.35. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $131.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $134.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.61 billion, a PE ratio of 33.78 and a beta of 0.47.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.23. Qualys had a return on equity of 40.24% and a net margin of 28.72%. The business had revenue of $153.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $150.74 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.24 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Qualys, Inc. will post 4.34 EPS for the current fiscal 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.