Argent Capital Management LLC Buys 1,287 Shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Argent Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 36.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 4,833 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,287 shares during the quarter. Argent Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Qualys were worth $678,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of 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 worth $49,876,000 after buying an additional 331,766 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 100.7% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 367,470 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $52,401,000 after acquiring an additional 184,403 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 14.5% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 926,093 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $118,966,000 after acquiring an additional 117,079 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 25.6% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 315,970 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $44,994,000 after acquiring an additional 64,394 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in Qualys by 208.5% in the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 86,187 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $11,072,000 after purchasing an additional 58,252 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on QLYS. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Qualys from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective 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. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $162.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of Qualys from $120.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $152.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In other news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,332 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.37, for a total value of $209,616.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 113,652 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,885,415.24. This represents a 1.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,339 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 55,279 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,830,273.24. This trade represents a 2.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 31,716 shares of company stock valued at $4,620,419. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ QLYS opened at $135.91 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $146.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $135.83. The company has a market cap of $4.97 billion, a PE ratio of 29.94 and a beta of 0.57. Qualys, Inc. has a 52-week low of $119.17 and a 52-week high of $201.03.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The software maker reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.23. The company 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 revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.24 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 4.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.