Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) Shares Purchased by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) by 1,386.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 355,699 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 331,766 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned 0.97% of Qualys worth $49,876,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of QLYS. Mendota Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Qualys in the fourth quarter worth about $91,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in Qualys by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 73,960 shares of the software maker's stock worth $10,390,000 after acquiring an additional 2,760 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Qualys by 8.1% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 39,603 shares of the software maker's stock worth $4,968,000 after buying an additional 2,972 shares during the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 16.3% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 16,772 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $2,155,000 after purchasing an additional 2,356 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 70.5% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 2,472 shares of the software maker's stock worth $318,000 after buying an additional 1,022 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.31% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on QLYS. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Qualys from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Qualys from $150.00 to $162.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Westpark Capital reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Qualys in a research report 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. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on Qualys from $130.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $152.80.

Qualys Stock Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ:QLYS traded up $0.61 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $136.52. 489,799 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 415,540. Qualys, Inc. has a 52 week low of $119.17 and a 52 week high of $201.03. The firm has a market cap of $5.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.07 and a beta of 0.57. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $146.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $135.83.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.23. Qualys had a return on equity of 40.24% and a net margin of 28.72%. The business had revenue of $153.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $150.74 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.24 earnings per share. Qualys's revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Qualys, Inc. will post 4.34 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Qualys news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.49, for a total transaction of $941,430.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 225,453 shares of the company's stock, valued at $30,321,173.97. This trade represents a 3.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 8,555 shares of the 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 approximately $9,900,627.84. The trade was a 11.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 31,716 shares of company stock valued at $4,620,419 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

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.