Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Buys 1,905 Shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd grew its stake in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 69.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 4,661 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,905 shares during the quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings in Qualys were worth $654,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Qualys during the fourth quarter worth about $39,000. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its stake in Qualys by 33.9% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 391 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $55,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP boosted its stake in Qualys by 56.2% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 439 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $56,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Qualys during the fourth quarter worth about $91,000. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Qualys by 68.6% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 730 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $94,000 after acquiring an additional 297 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on QLYS. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $170.00 to $163.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Qualys from $123.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Qualys from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $146.00 target price (down from $150.00) on shares of Qualys in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a report on Monday, February 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $146.57.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In other Qualys news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 8,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 64,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,900,627.84. This represents a 11.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 113,652 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,885,415.24. This represents a 1.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,813 shares of company stock valued at $5,278,133. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Stock Up 0.3 %

QLYS opened at $131.46 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $139.43 and a 200-day moving average price of $135.61. Qualys, Inc. has a twelve month low of $119.17 and a twelve month high of $174.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.27 and a beta of 0.56.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by ($0.16). Qualys had a net margin of 28.59% and a return on equity of 38.52%. As a group, analysts expect that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Qualys 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.