Polen Capital Management LLC Sells 1,803 Shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Polen Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 8.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 18,701 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 1,803 shares during the period. Polen Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Qualys were worth $2,622,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 1,386.2% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 355,699 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $49,876,000 after purchasing an additional 331,766 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its position in Qualys by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,049,623 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $147,178,000 after buying an additional 123,530 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Qualys during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $15,937,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Qualys by 208.5% in the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 86,187 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $11,072,000 after buying an additional 58,252 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of Qualys by 101.8% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 112,214 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $14,415,000 after purchasing an additional 56,613 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Qualys

In related news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.49, for a total transaction of $941,430.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 855 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.24, for a total value of $121,615.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 63,177 shares in the company, valued at $8,986,296.48. The trade was a 1.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 26,926 shares of company stock worth $3,745,742. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Loop Capital reduced 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. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $140.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com raised Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their target price on shares of Qualys from $170.00 to $163.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Qualys presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $146.57.

Qualys Stock Performance

NASDAQ QLYS opened at $126.39 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $4.61 billion, a PE ratio of 27.18 and a beta of 0.56. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $136.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $136.04. Qualys, Inc. has a 52-week low of $119.17 and a 52-week high of $174.20.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $1.19 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, 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.