Qualys Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders bought 3,887 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 3,222% compared to the average volume of 117 call options.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In related news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.12, for a total value of $1,250,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 252,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,191,936. This trade represents a 3.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 3,077 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.99, for a total transaction of $449,211.23. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 71,776 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,478,578.24. The trade was a 4.11% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders sold 34,214 shares of company stock valued at $4,880,609. Insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qualys

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. RWA Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Qualys in the 3rd quarter valued at about $80,820,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new stake in Qualys during the third quarter valued at approximately $45,854,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Qualys by 46.9% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,012,100 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $144,133,000 after acquiring an additional 323,324 shares in the last quarter. Fundsmith LLP grew its holdings in Qualys by 21.2% in the third quarter. Fundsmith LLP now owns 870,859 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $115,241,000 after purchasing an additional 152,257 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Qualys by 2.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,401,798 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $582,490,000 after purchasing an additional 123,962 shares during the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Qualys Trading Down 1.2%

NASDAQ:QLYS opened at $130.97 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.38 and a beta of 0.50. Qualys has a twelve month low of $112.61 and a twelve month high of $155.47. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $139.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $136.01.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The software maker reported $1.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.56 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $169.88 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $166.30 million. Qualys had a net margin of 28.96% and a return on equity of 37.40%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.56 EPS. Qualys has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.930-7.000 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.730-1.800 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Qualys will post 3.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

QLYS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and set a $130.00 target price (down from $145.00) on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Qualys from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $117.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Qualys from $145.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Berenberg Bank started coverage on Qualys in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. They set a “hold” rating and a $165.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Qualys currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $143.57.

About Qualys

Qualys, Inc (NASDAQ: QLYS) is a leading provider of cloud-based security and compliance solutions designed to help organizations streamline their IT security programs. Operating on a unified, modular platform, Qualys offers continuous visibility into global IT assets through a combination of lightweight cloud agents and on-premises scanner appliances. The platform supports an array of security and compliance use cases, enabling real-time detection of vulnerabilities, policy violations and misconfigurations across on-premises, cloud and hybrid environments.

The company’s flagship Qualys Cloud Platform delivers a suite of integrated applications, including vulnerability management, detection and response (VMDR), policy compliance, web application scanning, file integrity monitoring, asset inventory and container security.