Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Qualys Call Options (QLYS)

Qualys Inc (NASDAQ:QLYS) saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 1,375 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 1,709% compared to the average volume of 76 call options.

QLYS stock opened at $96.41 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 107.12 and a beta of 1.55. Qualys has a twelve month low of $61.70 and a twelve month high of $98.30.

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Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 12th. The software maker reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $74.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $74.14 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 14.18% and a net margin of 17.10%. The business’s revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.32 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Qualys will post 1.07 EPS for the current year.

In related news, VP Bruce K. Posey sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.58, for a total transaction of $187,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 63,578 shares in the company, valued at $5,949,629.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Sumedh S. Thakar sold 3,796 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.09, for a total value of $292,633.64. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 218,081 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,811,864.29. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 33,649 shares of company stock worth $2,911,258. 18.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of QLYS. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in Qualys by 5.5% in the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,880,617 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $434,863,000 after purchasing an additional 255,598 shares in the last quarter. American Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Qualys by 106.2% in the fourth quarter. American Capital Management Inc. now owns 462,437 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $34,563,000 after purchasing an additional 238,199 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its stake in Qualys by 300.5% in the third quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 187,166 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $16,677,000 after purchasing an additional 140,433 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its stake in Qualys by 66.2% in the third quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 293,250 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,130,000 after purchasing an additional 116,753 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc grew its stake in Qualys by 3.1% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc now owns 3,392,117 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $302,238,000 after purchasing an additional 102,212 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.22% of the company’s stock.

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a report on Wednesday. BidaskClub downgraded Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 22nd. JMP Securities upgraded Qualys from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 4th. Wedbush assumed coverage on Qualys in a report on Thursday, October 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $95.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Zacks Investment Research upgraded Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $91.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, January 25th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $88.94.

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Qualys Company Profile

Qualys, Inc provides cloud-based security and compliance solutions in the United States and internationally. The company offers Qualys Cloud Apps, which includes Asset Inventory, CMDB Sync, Vulnerability Management, Continuous Monitoring, Cloud Agent, Threat Protection, Security Configuration Assessment, Indication of Compromise, Policy Compliance, PCI Compliance, Security Assessment Questionnaire, File Integrity Monitoring, Web Application Scanning, and Web Application Firewall.

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