Royal Bank of Canada Has Lowered Expectations for Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Stock Price

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) had its price objective lowered by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $162.00 to $135.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “sector perform” rating on the software maker’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target indicates a potential downside of 0.41% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. DA Davidson increased their price objective on Qualys from $120.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Qualys from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their target price on Qualys from $120.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $149.87.

Qualys Stock Down 3.7 %

QLYS traded down $5.15 on Friday, reaching $135.56. The company had a trading volume of 440,087 shares, compared to its average volume of 388,192. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $143.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $135.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.96 billion, a PE ratio of 29.91 and a beta of 0.56. Qualys has a 1 year low of $119.17 and a 1 year high of $174.73.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its quarterly 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 net margin of 28.72% and a return on equity of 40.24%. As a group, analysts expect that Qualys will post 4.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 225,453 shares in the company, valued at $33,741,295.98. This represents a 3.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 8,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.62, for a total value of $1,322,774.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 64,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,900,627.84. This trade represents a 11.79 % 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 worth $4,578,153. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Qualys during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Qualys in the fourth quarter worth about $39,000. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in Qualys by 33.9% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 391 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in Qualys by 80.8% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 432 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP increased its stake in Qualys by 56.2% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 439 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

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.