Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) Shares Acquired by Renaissance Technologies LLC

Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 15.3% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 474,100 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 63,000 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC’s holdings in Qualys were worth $67,607,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of QLYS. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Qualys by 121.9% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 360,294 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $70,719,000 after purchasing an additional 197,911 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Qualys by 50.9% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 501,847 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $83,743,000 after purchasing an additional 169,293 shares during the period. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in Qualys by 169.7% in the first quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 245,522 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $40,970,000 after purchasing an additional 154,492 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Qualys by 95.7% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 286,005 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $40,771,000 after purchasing an additional 139,897 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new stake in Qualys in the fourth quarter worth about $18,844,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on QLYS shares. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Qualys from $180.00 to $150.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Qualys from $167.00 to $150.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Qualys from $116.00 to $115.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Qualys from $170.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Qualys presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $147.83.

Qualys Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ QLYS opened at $126.46 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $4.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.27 and a beta of 0.46. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $132.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $146.82. Qualys, Inc. has a 52 week low of $119.32 and a 52 week high of $206.35.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $148.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $148.80 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 44.80% and a net margin of 29.36%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.95 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.94 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In related news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,330 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.14, for a total value of $179,736.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 59,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,011,910.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Qualys news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 634 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $144.75, for a total transaction of $91,771.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 90,745 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,135,338.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,330 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.14, for a total value of $179,736.20. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 59,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,011,910.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 11,535 shares of company stock valued at $1,624,105. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.