Royal Bank of Canada Has Lowered Expectations for Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Stock Price

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) had its target price trimmed by Royal Bank of Canada from $162.00 to $135.00 in a report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a sector perform rating on the software maker's stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Qualys from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Qualys from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Qualys from $120.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price objective on shares of Qualys from $170.00 to $163.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Qualys from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Qualys has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $146.57.

Qualys Stock Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ:QLYS traded down $0.38 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $137.32. 260,601 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 393,670. The company's 50 day moving average is $142.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $135.49. Qualys has a twelve month low of $119.17 and a twelve month high of $174.31. The company has a market capitalization of $5.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.53 and a beta of 0.56.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last issued its 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 net margin of 28.59% and a return on equity of 39.64%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Qualys will post 4.31 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Qualys news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 8,555 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now owns 64,032 shares in the company, valued at $9,900,627.84. This trade represents a 11.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,332 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.37, for a total transaction of $209,616.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 113,652 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,885,415.24. This represents a 1.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 35,746 shares of company stock valued at $5,206,333 over the last three months. Insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of QLYS. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in Qualys in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $445,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Qualys by 208.5% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 86,187 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $11,072,000 after purchasing an additional 58,252 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Qualys by 428.9% during the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 18,256 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $2,345,000 after purchasing an additional 14,804 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of Qualys by 40.0% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 29,015 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $3,525,000 after purchasing an additional 8,291 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in shares of Qualys by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 63,320 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $8,134,000 after purchasing an additional 4,040 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.