Willis Investment Counsel Increases Stock Holdings in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Willis Investment Counsel increased its position in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) by 31.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,985 shares of the software maker's stock after acquiring an additional 3,356 shares during the period. Willis Investment Counsel's holdings in Qualys were worth $1,761,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Qualys in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Qualys in the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 88.1% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 333 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 156 shares during the period. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Qualys during the fourth quarter worth about $54,000. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in shares of Qualys by 27.9% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 500 shares of the software maker's stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank set a $142.00 price objective on shares of Qualys and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price objective 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. Wedbush dropped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $160.00 to $145.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Qualys from $131.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $137.50.

Qualys Stock Performance

QLYS traded down $1.90 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $138.78. The stock had a trading volume of 291,224 shares, compared to its average volume of 377,457. The business has a fifty day moving average of $131.41 and a 200 day moving average of $135.74. Qualys, Inc. has a 1 year low of $112.61 and a 1 year high of $170.00. The company has a market cap of $5.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.85 and a beta of 0.61.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Qualys news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 524 shares of the company's 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 in the company, valued at approximately $8,416,557.14. This represents a 0.80% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Jeffrey P. Hank sold 4,000 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The stock was 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 24,472 shares of company stock worth $3,181,068. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.