Fifth Third Bancorp Acquires 10,217 Shares of Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Fifth Third Bancorp increased its holdings in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 2,285.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,664 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,217 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Qualys were worth $937,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of QLYS. Comerica Bank boosted its position in Qualys by 100.6% during the 4th quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 22,710 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,018,000 after acquiring an additional 11,391 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of Qualys in the 1st quarter valued at $914,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Qualys by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,256,002 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $168,380,000 after acquiring an additional 48,877 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in shares of Qualys by 41.9% in the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 234,108 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $31,113,000 after acquiring an additional 69,185 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in Qualys by 147.0% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 33,416 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,441,000 after purchasing an additional 19,889 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of QLYS opened at $137.48 on Monday. Qualys, Inc. has a 52 week low of $74.51 and a 52 week high of $167.86. The company has a market capitalization of $4.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.68 and a beta of 0.61. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $125.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $110.44.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.81 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $173.63 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.15% and a net margin of 29.41%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.67 EPS. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.440-7.650 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.730-1.800 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.00, for a total transaction of $4,050,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 196,686 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,552,610. This trade represents a 13.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Wendy Pfeiffer sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.55, for a total transaction of $55,275.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 12,710 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,405,090.50. This trade represents a 3.79% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 73,846 shares of company stock valued at $9,239,073 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on QLYS. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Qualys from $85.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. William Blair lowered shares of Qualys from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley set a $96.00 price target on shares of Qualys in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Qualys from $90.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.80.

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.