Alberta Investment Management Corp Sells 5,040 Shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Alberta Investment Management Corp cut its position in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 41.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,200 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 5,040 shares during the period. Alberta Investment Management Corp’s holdings in Qualys were worth $1,010,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Creative Planning increased its holdings in Qualys by 60.9% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 6,580 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $845,000 after buying an additional 2,491 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 93.2% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,559 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $222,000 after acquiring an additional 752 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in Qualys by 11.0% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 7,438 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $955,000 after acquiring an additional 738 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Qualys by 12,750.0% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,542 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $198,000 after acquiring an additional 1,530 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Qualys by 3.1% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 23,933 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,074,000 after purchasing an additional 716 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on QLYS. UBS Group upped their price objective on Qualys from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 15th. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on Qualys from $150.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Qualys from $130.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $146.00 target price (down previously from $150.00) on shares of Qualys in a report on Monday, February 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $146.57.

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 Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.17, for a total transaction of $995,190.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 246,144 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,994,292.48. This represents a 2.77 % 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 8,555 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 64,032 shares in the company, valued at $9,900,627.84. This trade represents a 11.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,288 shares of company stock worth $5,204,906 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Trading Down 2.3 %

Shares of QLYS stock opened at $136.20 on Friday. Qualys, Inc. has a 1 year low of $119.17 and a 1 year high of $174.31. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $140.33 and its 200-day moving average is $135.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.29 and a beta of 0.56.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.35 by ($0.16). Qualys had a return on equity of 38.52% and a net margin of 28.59%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 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.