Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) CEO Sumedh Thakar Sells 30,000 Shares of Stock

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) CEO Sumedh Thakar sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.00, for a total value of $4,050,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 196,686 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,552,610. This trade represents a 13.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Qualys Trading Up 4.3%

NASDAQ QLYS opened at $143.44 on Thursday. Qualys, Inc. has a twelve month low of $74.51 and a twelve month high of $155.47. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $103.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $108.93. The company has a market capitalization of $5.05 billion, a PE ratio of 25.75 and a beta of 0.61.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 earnings per share (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 analysts’ expectations of $173.63 million. Qualys had a net margin of 29.41% and a return on equity of 37.15%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.67 earnings per share. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.440-7.650 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.730-1.800 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

QLYS has been the topic of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Qualys from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Morgan Stanley set a $96.00 target price on Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of Qualys from $120.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen lowered Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Qualys presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $125.86.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in Qualys by 24.1% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,372,587 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $182,417,000 after purchasing an additional 266,924 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 48,877 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,156,412 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $153,687,000 after purchasing an additional 75,397 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 323,324 shares during the period. Finally, Fundsmith LLP raised its holdings in shares of Qualys by 21.2% during the third quarter. Fundsmith LLP now owns 870,859 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $115,241,000 after buying an additional 152,257 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

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.