Canaccord Genuity Group Cuts Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Price Target to $163.00

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) had its price target cut by equities researchers at Canaccord Genuity Group from $170.00 to $163.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the software maker’s stock. Canaccord Genuity Group’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 19.85% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on QLYS. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $140.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com raised Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. DA Davidson upped their price target on Qualys from $120.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $162.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $151.67.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ QLYS traded down $4.71 during trading on Friday, reaching $136.01. 384,102 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 385,565. The company has a 50-day moving average of $143.41 and a 200-day moving average of $135.70. Qualys has a 52-week low of $119.17 and a 52-week high of $174.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.91 and a beta of 0.56.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by ($0.16). Qualys had a net margin of 28.72% and a return on equity of 40.24%. Analysts expect that Qualys will post 4.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In other news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 855 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.24, for a total value of $121,615.20. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 63,177 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,986,296.48. This trade represents a 1.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.66, for a total value 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 $33,741,295.98. The trade was a 3.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 31,259 shares of company stock valued at $4,578,153. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in Qualys during the 3rd quarter valued at $445,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Qualys by 208.5% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 86,187 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $11,072,000 after buying an additional 58,252 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Qualys by 428.9% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 18,256 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,345,000 after buying an additional 14,804 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in Qualys by 40.0% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 29,015 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,525,000 after acquiring an additional 8,291 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in Qualys by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 63,320 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $8,134,000 after acquiring an additional 4,040 shares during the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.