Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) Stake Cut by Deutsche Bank AG

Deutsche Bank AG decreased its position in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) by 14.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 56,947 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 10,002 shares during the quarter. Deutsche Bank AG owned about 0.16% of Qualys worth $7,985,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in QLYS. Barclays PLC grew its stake in Qualys by 101.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 112,214 shares of the software maker's stock worth $14,415,000 after acquiring an additional 56,613 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 21.7% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 6,591 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $924,000 after acquiring an additional 1,174 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Qualys during the 4th quarter valued at about $225,000. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 154,440 shares of the software maker's stock worth $21,656,000 after acquiring an additional 430 shares during the period. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 12.7% in the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,089 shares of the software maker's stock worth $153,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Qualys news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 524 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.38, for a total value of $67,795.12. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 65,053 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,416,557.14. This trade represents a 0.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.81, for a total transaction of $866,670.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 246,313 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $30,496,012.53. This trade represents a 2.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 15,127 shares of company stock valued at $1,904,252. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on QLYS shares. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price target on shares of 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 target on shares of Qualys from $122.00 to $117.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Qualys from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, April 12th. Scotiabank set a $142.00 target price on shares of Qualys and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Qualys from $120.00 to $90.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $137.50.

Qualys Stock Up 1.8%

NASDAQ:QLYS traded up $2.41 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $138.24. 71,245 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 381,766. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.65 and a beta of 0.61. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $127.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $136.88. Qualys, Inc. has a 52 week low of $112.61 and a 52 week high of $170.00.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $159.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $157.05 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 38.52% and a net margin of 28.59%. The business's revenue was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.45 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 earnings per share 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.