D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. Sells 26,808 Shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) by 35.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 49,472 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 26,808 shares during the period. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. owned about 0.14% of Qualys worth $6,937,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 101.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 112,214 shares of the software maker's stock worth $14,415,000 after acquiring an additional 56,613 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Qualys by 1,386.2% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 355,699 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $49,876,000 after acquiring an additional 331,766 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its holdings in Qualys by 21.7% during the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 6,591 shares of the software maker's stock worth $924,000 after purchasing an additional 1,174 shares during the period. Burney Co. raised its position in shares of Qualys by 43.0% in the fourth quarter. Burney Co. now owns 20,972 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $2,941,000 after buying an additional 6,306 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Qualys by 40.1% in the fourth quarter. Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,177 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $445,000 after acquiring an additional 910 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.31% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Qualys

In related news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 525 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.48, for a total transaction of $73,227.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 65,373 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,118,226.04. This trade represents a 0.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.81, for a total value of $866,670.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 246,313 shares in the company, valued at $30,496,012.53. The trade was a 2.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 15,127 shares of company stock worth $1,905,108. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

QLYS has been the topic of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective 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. Wedbush dropped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $160.00 to $145.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Qualys from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, April 12th. Canaccord Genuity Group cut 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $137.50.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of QLYS traded up $0.02 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $136.90. The stock had a trading volume of 237,059 shares, compared to its average volume of 385,228. The firm has a market cap of $4.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.44 and a beta of 0.61. Qualys, Inc. has a 52-week low of $112.61 and a 52-week high of $170.00. The business's fifty day moving average is $126.48 and its 200 day moving average is $136.76.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $159.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $157.05 million. Qualys had a net margin of 28.59% and a return on equity of 38.52%. Qualys's quarterly revenue was up 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.45 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.