Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” by DA Davidson

DA Davidson upgraded shares of Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday, Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on QLYS. Wedbush cut their target price on Qualys from $190.00 to $160.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC reissued a hold rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group lowered their price target on Qualys from $170.00 to $140.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Northland Securities reissued a market perform rating and issued a $140.00 price target (down from $150.00) on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price target on Qualys from $167.00 to $150.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $149.92.

Qualys Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of QLYS traded down $1.20 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $125.93. The stock had a trading volume of 431,561 shares, compared to its average volume of 456,729. Qualys has a 12 month low of $121.64 and a 12 month high of $206.35. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $139.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $156.61. The company has a market capitalization of $4.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.15 and a beta of 0.49.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $1.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.20. Qualys had a return on equity of 47.28% and a net margin of 28.48%. The company had revenue of $148.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $148.80 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.95 EPS. Qualys’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Qualys will post 3.42 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Qualys

In other news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 616 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.93, for a total transaction of $82,500.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 87,077 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,662,222.61. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Qualys news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 616 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.93, for a total value of $82,500.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 87,077 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,662,222.61. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Jeffrey P. Hank sold 850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.45, for a total value of $115,132.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 11,353 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,537,763.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 29,715 shares of company stock worth $4,142,951. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new position in Qualys in the 1st quarter worth about $26,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 1,666.7% during the 1st quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 159 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 294.7% during the 2nd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 225 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 545.2% during the 1st quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 200 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 169 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DecisionPoint Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Qualys during the 1st quarter valued at about $34,000. Institutional investors own 99.31% 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.