18,312 Shares of Qualys, Inc. $QLYS Purchased by Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 18,312 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $3,428,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of Qualys by 28.8% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 47,295 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,155,000 after acquiring an additional 10,569 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its position in shares of Qualys by 306.4% during the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 36,253 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,185,000 after buying an additional 27,333 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 63.5% during the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 17,251 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,372,000 after buying an additional 6,700 shares during the period. Park State Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Qualys in the second quarter valued at about $5,942,000. Finally, Chase Investment Counsel Corp purchased a new stake in Qualys in the second quarter worth about $2,749,000. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Qualys Price Performance

QLYS traded down $9.22 on Friday, reaching $190.41. 1,110,081 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 782,528. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $190.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $136.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.59 billion, a PE ratio of 32.94 and a beta of 0.54. Qualys, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $74.51 and a fifty-two week high of $235.54.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.20. Qualys had a net margin of 29.38% and a return on equity of 37.52%. The company had revenue of $182.18 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $178.57 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.68 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on QLYS. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Qualys from $150.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Zacks Research raised shares of Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Robert W. Baird set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Wedbush lowered shares of Qualys from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $175.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, September 10th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $208.00 target price on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Qualys presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $185.87.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 3,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.05, for a total transaction of $544,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 180,338 shares in the company, valued at $30,666,476.90. This represents a 1.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Bruce Posey sold 881 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.52, for a total value of $166,967.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 57,807 shares in the company, valued at $10,955,582.64. This represents a 1.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 11,672 shares of company stock worth $2,192,747. Company insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Profile

Qualys, Inc is a cloud-based cybersecurity company that helps organizations identify, assess and manage security risks across information technology environments. Its platform is designed to provide visibility into assets, vulnerabilities, configurations and compliance requirements across on-premises infrastructure, endpoints, networks, applications and cloud environments.

The company’s offerings include vulnerability management, detection and response, policy compliance, asset inventory, web application security, endpoint security and cloud security capabilities.