Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Increases Position in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its position in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 84.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 12,580 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,756 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Qualys were worth $1,764,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Qualys in the fourth quarter valued at $39,000. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its holdings in shares of Qualys by 33.9% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 391 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP raised its position in shares of Qualys by 56.2% during the 3rd 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 acquired a new stake in shares of Qualys during the 4th quarter worth about $91,000. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted 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 purchasing an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of QLYS stock opened at $131.46 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.27 and a beta of 0.56. The business’s 50 day moving average is $139.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $135.61. Qualys, Inc. has a twelve month low of $119.17 and a twelve month high of $174.31.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.19 earnings per share 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, equities analysts predict that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Qualys

In related news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.49, for a total value of $941,430.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 225,453 shares in the company, valued at $30,321,173.97. The trade was a 3.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 8,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.62, for a total value of $1,322,774.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 64,032 shares in the company, valued at $9,900,627.84. This represents a 11.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,813 shares of company stock worth $5,278,133 over the last ninety days. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on QLYS. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Qualys from $123.00 to $126.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Qualys from $120.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Qualys from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Wolfe Research raised Qualys from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Qualys from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $146.57.

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.