Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Buys Shares of 1,945 Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,945 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $273,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Qualys by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 456,540 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $64,016,000 after acquiring an additional 3,848 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Qualys during the fourth quarter worth $15,937,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Qualys by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 7,833 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,095,000 after purchasing an additional 933 shares during the period. Trust Point Inc. purchased a new stake in Qualys in the fourth quarter valued at $376,000. Finally, Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC boosted its holdings in Qualys by 26.9% in the fourth quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 4,253 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $596,000 after purchasing an additional 902 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on QLYS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Qualys from $122.00 to $117.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Qualys from $131.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Qualys from $145.00 to $130.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 31st. Wedbush lowered their price target on shares of Qualys from $160.00 to $145.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a "hold" rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $137.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In other news, Director Jeffrey P. Hank sold 4,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.93, for a total transaction of $515,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 12,666 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,633,027.38. This represents a 24.00% 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, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 540 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.86, for a total transaction of $63,644.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 64,513 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,603,502.18. This trade represents a 0.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 15,127 shares of company stock valued at $1,904,252 over the last quarter. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Qualys Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of NASDAQ QLYS traded down $1.92 during trading on Friday, hitting $134.51. The company had a trading volume of 273,690 shares, compared to its average volume of 382,930. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.93 and a beta of 0.61. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $127.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $137.00. Qualys, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $112.61 and a fifty-two week high of $170.00.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 28.59% and a return on equity of 38.52%. The firm had revenue of $159.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $157.05 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.45 EPS. Qualys's quarterly revenue was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate 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.