Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Stock Price Down 4.1% – Time to Sell?

Shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) fell 4.1% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $169.40 and last traded at $169.7290. Approximately 69,636 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 91% from the average daily volume of 752,648 shares. The stock had previously closed at $177.01.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on QLYS shares. Wall Street Zen raised Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. Weiss Ratings raised Qualys from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, August 24th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Qualys from $145.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Robert W. Baird set a $160.00 price objective on Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Qualys from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $170.53.

Qualys Stock Down 4.7%

The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $160.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $118.96. The firm has a market cap of $5.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.25 and a beta of 0.62.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $182.18 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $178.57 million. Qualys had a net margin of 29.38% and a return on equity of 37.52%. Qualys’s revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.68 earnings per share. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.740-7.880 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.910-1.980 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In other news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.00, for a total value of $4,050,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 196,686 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,552,610. This represents a 13.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,000 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.00, for a total value of $155,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 63,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,853,505. The trade was a 1.55% 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 58,614 shares of company stock valued at $7,747,968 over the last ninety days. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qualys

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in QLYS. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Qualys in the second quarter worth $792,316,000. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 13,255.9% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 5,651,801 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $777,066,000 after buying an additional 5,609,484 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Qualys in the second quarter valued at approximately $197,624,000. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in Qualys by 24.1% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,372,587 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $182,417,000 after acquiring an additional 266,924 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Qualys by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,256,002 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $168,380,000 after purchasing an additional 48,877 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.