Willis Investment Counsel Acquires 3,356 Shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Willis Investment Counsel grew its position in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) by 31.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 13,985 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 3,356 shares during the quarter. Willis Investment Counsel's holdings in Qualys were worth $1,761,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Qualys in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Qualys in the 4th quarter valued at $39,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Qualys by 88.1% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 333 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 156 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Qualys in the 4th quarter valued at $54,000. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its stake in shares of Qualys by 27.9% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 500 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $63,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

QLYS has been the topic of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Qualys from $131.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Qualys from $122.00 to $117.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Wedbush dropped their target price on shares of Qualys from $160.00 to $145.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Qualys from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Qualys from $120.00 to $90.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $137.50.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of QLYS stock traded up $0.46 on Monday, hitting $139.24. The stock had a trading volume of 303,723 shares, compared to its average volume of 376,928. The business has a 50 day moving average of $131.89 and a 200 day moving average of $135.37. The stock has a market cap of $5.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.94 and a beta of 0.61. Qualys, Inc. has a 12-month low of $112.61 and a 12-month high of $170.00.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,358 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.87, for a total transaction of $169,573.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 105,740 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,203,753.80. This represents a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 524 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.38, for a total transaction of $67,795.12. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 65,053 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,416,557.14. The trade was a 0.80% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 24,472 shares of company stock worth $3,181,068 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.88% of the company's stock.

Qualys Company 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.