Alps Advisors Inc. Purchases 590 Shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Alps Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 6.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 9,586 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 590 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Qualys were worth $1,207,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Qualys by 24.4% during the 1st quarter. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 41,370 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $5,210,000 after purchasing an additional 8,120 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Qualys by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 8,143 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,036,000 after purchasing an additional 310 shares during the last quarter. Novem Group boosted its stake in Qualys by 35.0% during the 1st quarter. Novem Group now owns 7,008 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $883,000 after purchasing an additional 1,817 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Qualys by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 110,027 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $13,856,000 after purchasing an additional 1,177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Verity Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Qualys during the 1st quarter valued at about $360,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their price target on Qualys from $163.00 to $158.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Scotiabank set a $142.00 target price on Qualys and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 22nd. Wedbush cut their target price on Qualys from $160.00 to $145.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Qualys from $120.00 to $90.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.50.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of QLYS stock opened at $135.61 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $138.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $134.53. Qualys, Inc. has a 1 year low of $112.61 and a 1 year high of $170.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.73 and a beta of 0.62.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The software maker reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $159.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $157.05 million. Qualys had a net margin of 29.19% and a return on equity of 38.05%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.45 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.25, for a total value of $1,791,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 217,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,530,828.50. This represents a 5.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,018 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.75, for a total transaction of $129,031.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 100,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,791,610. The trade was a 1.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 37,897 shares of company stock worth $5,313,483. Company insiders own 0.88% 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.