Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Stock

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) had its price objective raised by Morgan Stanley from $123.00 to $126.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “underweight” rating on the software maker’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would indicate a potential downside of 18.75% from the stock’s current price.

QLYS has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Scotiabank dropped their target price on Qualys from $167.00 to $150.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com downgraded Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 3rd. TD Cowen dropped their target price on Qualys from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Westpark Capital restated a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Qualys from $116.00 to $115.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $152.80.

Qualys Trading Down 2.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ QLYS opened at $155.08 on Wednesday. Qualys has a 12 month low of $119.17 and a 12 month high of $206.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.16 and a beta of 0.47. The business has a 50-day moving average of $125.52 and a 200-day moving average of $136.45.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.23. Qualys had a return on equity of 44.80% and a net margin of 29.36%. The company had revenue of $153.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $150.74 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.24 earnings per share. Qualys’s revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Qualys will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In related news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 634 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.19, for a total transaction of $77,468.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 85,942 shares in the company, valued at $10,501,252.98. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 634 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.19, for a total transaction of $77,468.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 85,942 shares in the company, valued at $10,501,252.98. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,339 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.56, for a total value of $165,446.84. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 55,279 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,830,273.24. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,919 shares of company stock worth $1,360,140 over the last quarter. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qualys

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Qualys by 294.7% in the second quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 225 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Qualys by 149.0% in the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 239 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the period. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Qualys in the second quarter worth $40,000. DT Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Qualys in the second quarter worth $41,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its stake in shares of Qualys by 53.6% in the third 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 owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.