Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Insider Sells $145,706.34 in Stock

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) insider Bruce Posey sold 1,101 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.34, for a total value of $145,706.34. Following the transaction, the insider owned 68,598 shares in the company, valued at $9,078,259.32. This represents a 1.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Qualys Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:QLYS opened at $128.79 on Friday. Qualys, Inc. has a 1-year low of $112.61 and a 1-year high of $155.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.62 billion, a PE ratio of 24.96 and a beta of 0.50. The business’s 50 day moving average is $139.31 and its 200-day moving average is $135.80.

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

Institutional Trading of Qualys

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Qualys by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,401,798 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $582,490,000 after buying an additional 123,962 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp lifted its position in shares of Qualys by 0.7% during the third quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,146,289 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $151,688,000 after purchasing an additional 8,425 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Qualys by 4.1% during the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,115,717 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $159,402,000 after purchasing an additional 44,000 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Qualys by 2.8% in the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,081,015 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $143,051,000 after purchasing an additional 29,342 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in Qualys by 46.9% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,012,100 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $144,133,000 after purchasing an additional 323,324 shares during the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

QLYS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on Qualys from $158.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Berenberg Bank assumed coverage on Qualys in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. They set a “hold” rating and a $165.00 price objective for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Qualys from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Qualys from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $150.00 target price on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $143.57.

Qualys Company Profile

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.