Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Has $49.88 Million Stock Position in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 1,386.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 355,699 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 331,766 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned 0.97% of Qualys worth $49,876,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of QLYS. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of Qualys during the second quarter valued at about $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in Qualys by 80.8% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 432 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its holdings in Qualys by 53.6% in the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 639 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $82,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Qualys in the 4th quarter worth approximately $91,000. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Qualys by 68.6% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 730 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $94,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In other Qualys news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.66, for a total transaction of $1,047,620.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 225,453 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,741,295.98. This represents a 3.01 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,339 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.56, for a total transaction of $165,446.84. Following the sale, the insider now owns 55,279 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,830,273.24. This represents a 2.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 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.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on QLYS shares. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on Qualys from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Qualys from $123.00 to $126.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Qualys from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $152.80.

Qualys Stock Performance

Shares of QLYS stock opened at $135.91 on Thursday. Qualys, Inc. has a 52 week low of $119.17 and a 52 week high of $201.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.97 billion, a PE ratio of 29.94 and a beta of 0.57. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $146.53 and its 200-day moving average is $135.83.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $153.87 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $150.74 million. Qualys had a net margin of 28.72% and a return on equity of 40.24%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.24 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 4.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.