KBC Group NV Grows Stake in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

KBC Group NV grew its holdings in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 58.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,724 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 633 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Qualys were worth $242,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Qualys by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,246,562 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $160,957,000 after purchasing an additional 20,038 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its position in shares of Qualys by 14.5% during the third quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 926,093 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $118,966,000 after buying an additional 117,079 shares during the period. CDAM UK Ltd raised its stake in Qualys by 8.3% in the third quarter. CDAM UK Ltd now owns 502,913 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $64,604,000 after buying an additional 38,509 shares in the last quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Qualys by 8.3% in the third quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 373,995 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $48,043,000 after buying an additional 28,802 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Qualys by 1,386.2% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 355,699 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $49,876,000 after acquiring an additional 331,766 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:QLYS opened at $143.43 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $143.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $135.59. The company has a market cap of $5.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.59 and a beta of 0.56. Qualys, Inc. has a 1 year low of $119.17 and a 1 year high of $184.04.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.23. Qualys had a return on equity of 40.24% and a net margin of 28.72%. The company had revenue of $153.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $150.74 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.24 earnings per share. Qualys’s revenue was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 4.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

QLYS has been the subject of several research reports. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Qualys from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Wolfe Research raised Qualys from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Qualys from $123.00 to $126.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $120.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Qualys currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $152.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 225,453 shares in the company, valued at $33,741,295.98. This trade represents a 3.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 8,555 shares of Qualys 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 transaction, the insider now owns 64,032 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,900,627.84. This trade represents a 11.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 31,259 shares of company stock valued at $4,578,153. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Qualys Company 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.