Congress Asset Management Co. Cuts Stock Position in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Congress Asset Management Co. cut its stake in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 6.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 687,497 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 46,399 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co.’s holdings in Qualys were worth $96,401,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of QLYS. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Qualys by 1,386.2% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 355,699 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $49,876,000 after purchasing an additional 331,766 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp boosted its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in Qualys by 208.5% in 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 in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in Qualys by 101.8% in 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 boosted its stake in Qualys by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. CDAM UK Ltd now owns 502,913 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $64,604,000 after purchasing an additional 38,509 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 8,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.62, for a total transaction of $1,322,774.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 64,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,900,627.84. This represents a 11.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.49, for a total transaction of $941,430.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 225,453 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,321,173.97. The trade was a 3.01 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 29,288 shares of company stock valued at $4,209,716. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on QLYS shares. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their target price on shares of Qualys from $170.00 to $163.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Qualys from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $140.00 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 assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $146.57.

Qualys Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ QLYS opened at $143.76 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $5.26 billion, a PE ratio of 30.92 and a beta of 0.56. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $141.33 and a 200 day moving average of $135.37. Qualys, Inc. has a one year low of $119.17 and a one year high of $174.31.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued 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 return on equity of 39.64% and a net margin of 28.59%. On average, equities analysts predict that Qualys, Inc. will post 4.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.