Vanguard Group Inc. Reduces Stake in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. reduced its stake in Qualys by 0.8%, holding approximately 4.28 million shares valued at about $538.5 million as of the end of the first quarter.
• Institutional and hedge funds own an impressive 99.31% of Qualys' stock, indicating strong institutional interest in the company.
• Qualys received several recent upgrades from analysts, with ratings improved to "buy" and "strong-buy" from previous holds, alongside a consensus target price of $141.00.

Vanguard Group Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) by 0.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,276,304 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 36,358 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 11.76% of Qualys worth $538,515,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bank of Montreal Can increased its stake in Qualys by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 5,175 shares of the software maker's stock worth $726,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Qualys during the fourth quarter worth about $15,937,000. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Qualys by 61.5% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 181,249 shares of the software maker's stock worth $25,415,000 after purchasing an additional 69,035 shares during the period. Mariner LLC increased its stake in Qualys by 12.7% during the fourth quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 5,129 shares of the software maker's stock worth $719,000 after purchasing an additional 577 shares during the period. Finally, Jump Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Qualys during the fourth quarter worth about $3,744,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Wendy Pfeiffer sold 200 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.45, for a total value of $27,890.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 11,282 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,573,274.90. This trade represents a 1.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director John A. Zangardi sold 1,287 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.03, for a total value of $169,922.61. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 11,034 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,456,819.02. The trade was a 10.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 52,385 shares of company stock worth $7,294,315. Corporate insiders own 0.88% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on QLYS. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Qualys from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Sunday. Zacks Research raised Qualys to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. DA Davidson boosted their target price on Qualys from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Qualys from $142.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their target price on Qualys from $163.00 to $158.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Qualys currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $141.00.

Qualys Stock Performance

Qualys stock traded down $0.01 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $129.15. 232,702 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 351,235. The firm has a market cap of $4.66 billion, a PE ratio of 25.78 and a beta of 0.56. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $138.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $133.79. Qualys, Inc. has a twelve month low of $112.61 and a twelve month high of $170.00.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $164.06 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $161.25 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.19% and a net margin of 29.04%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.52 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate 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.