Polen Capital Management LLC Sells 1,959 Shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Key Points

• Polen Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in Qualys, Inc. by 10.5% in the first quarter, now holding 16,742 shares valued at approximately $2.1 million.
• Qualys reported a quarterly earnings per share of $1.68, exceeding estimates by $0.21, and experiencing a 10.3% revenue increase from the same quarter last year.
• Insiders have recently been selling shares, with the Director and CEO collectively offloading over 9,000 shares in transactions this summer.

Polen Capital Management LLC decreased its stake in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) by 10.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 16,742 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 1,959 shares during the period. Polen Capital Management LLC's holdings in Qualys were worth $2,108,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Qualys by 2.8% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 415,582 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $52,334,000 after buying an additional 11,481 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Qualys by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 62,729 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $7,899,000 after purchasing an additional 2,482 shares in the last quarter. Nutshell Asset Management Ltd boosted its holdings in Qualys by 36.7% during the 1st quarter. Nutshell Asset Management Ltd now owns 30,455 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $3,835,000 after acquiring an additional 8,176 shares during the period. Alapocas Investment Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of Qualys in the first quarter worth approximately $6,705,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Qualys during the first quarter worth about $127,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.31% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Qualys news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 8,500 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.40, for a total value of $1,176,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 215,962 shares of the company's stock, valued at $29,889,140.80. The trade was a 3.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,018 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.26, for a total transaction of $134,640.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 94,468 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $12,494,337.68. This trade represents a 1.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 42,598 shares of company stock worth $6,019,818 in the last three months. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their target price 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. Wall Street Zen cut Qualys from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Qualys from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of Qualys from $131.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Wedbush lifted their target price on shares of Qualys from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $141.00.

Qualys Price Performance

Qualys stock traded up $2.73 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $132.18. 283,662 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 338,972. Qualys, Inc. has a 12 month low of $112.61 and a 12 month high of $170.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.38 and a beta of 0.56. The business has a 50 day moving average of $138.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $134.13.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The software maker reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.21. Qualys had a net margin of 29.04% and a return on equity of 37.19%. The firm had revenue of $164.06 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $161.25 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.52 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 EPS for the current year.

Qualys Profile

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.