Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) Shares Acquired by Van ECK Associates Corp

Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 34.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 38,890 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,875 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Qualys were worth $5,453,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Qualys by 1,386.2% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 355,699 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $49,876,000 after purchasing an additional 331,766 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its holdings in shares of Qualys by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,049,623 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $147,178,000 after purchasing an additional 123,530 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Qualys by 208.5% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 86,187 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $11,072,000 after purchasing an additional 58,252 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its position in Qualys by 101.8% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 112,214 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $14,415,000 after purchasing an additional 56,613 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CDAM UK Ltd lifted its position in Qualys by 8.3% during the third quarter. CDAM UK Ltd now owns 502,913 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $64,604,000 after buying an additional 38,509 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

QLYS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price objective on shares of Qualys from $170.00 to $163.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Qualys from $130.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. DA Davidson increased their price target on Qualys from $120.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Qualys from $123.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Qualys from $162.00 to $135.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $146.57.

Qualys Trading Up 2.7 %

Shares of QLYS stock opened at $147.70 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $141.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $135.31. Qualys, Inc. has a 12 month low of $119.17 and a 12 month high of $174.31. The company has a market capitalization of $5.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.76 and a beta of 0.56.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.35 by ($0.16). Qualys had a return on equity of 39.64% and a net margin of 28.59%. Sell-side analysts predict that Qualys, Inc. will post 4.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Qualys news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.37, for a total value of $209,616.84. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 113,652 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,885,415.24. This trade represents a 1.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 8,555 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.62, for a total value of $1,322,774.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 64,032 shares in the company, valued at $9,900,627.84. This represents a 11.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 36,288 shares of company stock valued at $5,204,906. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Qualys 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.