Petrus Trust Company LTA Acquires New Position in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Petrus Trust Company LTA bought a new stake in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 4,696 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $603,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of QLYS. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Qualys by 294.7% in the 2nd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 225 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in Qualys by 149.0% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 239 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new position in Qualys in the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. DT Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Qualys in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 53.6% in the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 639 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $82,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares during the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In other Qualys news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.66, for a total transaction of $1,047,620.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 225,453 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,741,295.98. This trade represents a 3.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at 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 transaction of $1,322,774.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 64,032 shares in the company, valued at $9,900,627.84. The trade was a 11.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 29,858 shares of company stock valued at $4,239,673 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Price Performance

NASDAQ QLYS opened at $158.85 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $136.29 and its 200 day moving average price is $135.17. The company has a market capitalization of $5.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.99 and a beta of 0.54. Qualys, Inc. has a 12 month low of $119.17 and a 12 month high of $206.35.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $153.87 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $150.74 million. Qualys had a net margin of 28.72% and a return on equity of 40.24%. The company’s revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.24 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 4.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

QLYS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $123.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of Qualys from $167.00 to $150.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $162.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $152.80.

About Qualys

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.