Novem Group Invests $728,000 in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Novem Group bought a new stake in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 5,191 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $728,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Amalgamated Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 16,640 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,333,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Qualys by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 5,749 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $806,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in Qualys by 33.9% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 391 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Qualys by 12.7% during the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,089 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $153,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares during the period. Finally, Huntington National Bank increased its stake in Qualys by 15.6% during the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 932 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $131,000 after acquiring an additional 126 shares during the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on QLYS. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on Qualys from $150.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $146.00 price target (down from $150.00) on shares of Qualys in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $120.00 to $90.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, April 12th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price target on shares of Qualys from $163.00 to $158.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $137.50.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of Qualys stock opened at $135.83 on Thursday. Qualys, Inc. has a 1-year low of $112.61 and a 1-year high of $170.00. The company has a market capitalization of $4.93 billion, a PE ratio of 29.21 and a beta of 0.61. The business has a 50-day moving average of $127.28 and a 200-day moving average of $136.88.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.21. Qualys had a return on equity of 38.52% and a net margin of 28.59%. The firm had revenue of $159.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $157.05 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.45 EPS. Qualys’s quarterly revenue was up 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.81, for a total value of $866,670.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 246,313 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,496,012.53. This trade represents a 2.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 524 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.38, for a total value of $67,795.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 65,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,416,557.14. This represents a 0.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 15,127 shares of company stock worth $1,904,252. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Qualys 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.