Morgan Stanley Cuts Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Price Target to $123.00

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) had its price target dropped by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $136.00 to $123.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “underweight” rating on the software maker’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would suggest a potential downside of 0.36% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Northland Securities reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $140.00 price objective (down from $150.00) on shares of Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Qualys from $165.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. They set a “hold” rating and a $135.00 target price on the stock. DA Davidson raised Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their target price on Qualys from $116.00 to $115.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Qualys has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $145.00.

Qualys Trading Down 0.6 %

NASDAQ:QLYS opened at $123.45 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.19 and a beta of 0.46. Qualys has a 12 month low of $119.32 and a 12 month high of $206.35. The business’s 50-day moving average is $124.57 and its 200 day moving average is $139.16.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $148.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $148.80 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 44.80% and a net margin of 29.36%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.95 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Qualys will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In other Qualys news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,330 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.80, for a total transaction of $164,654.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 55,618 shares in the company, valued at $6,885,508.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Qualys news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.21, for a total transaction of $876,470.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 179,649 shares in the company, valued at $22,493,851.29. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,330 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.80, for a total value of $164,654.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 55,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,885,508.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 11,535 shares of company stock worth $1,442,641. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 4,896 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $699,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Legacy Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Legacy Advisors LLC now owns 8,272 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,180,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 46,193 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $7,708,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 8.1% during the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,684 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $281,000 after purchasing an additional 126 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 46,436 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $6,622,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

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.