Insider Selling: Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) CEO Sells 3,200 Shares of Stock

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) CEO Sumedh Thakar sold 3,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.05, for a total transaction of $544,160.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 180,338 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,666,476.90. This trade represents a 1.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:QLYS traded up $12.46 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $185.37. 1,195,679 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 614,118. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $167.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $123.99. Qualys, Inc. has a 12-month low of $74.51 and a 12-month high of $201.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.41 billion, a PE ratio of 32.07 and a beta of 0.62.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $182.18 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $178.57 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.52% and a net margin of 29.38%.Qualys’s quarterly revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business 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, sell-side analysts anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on QLYS shares. Wedbush downgraded Qualys from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $175.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Qualys from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Qualys from $150.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $173.87.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Qualys during the second quarter valued at approximately $792,316,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in Qualys in the second quarter worth $197,624,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Qualys by 4.0% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of Qualys by 127.0% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 832,796 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $73,161,000 after purchasing an additional 465,952 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 763,099 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $67,041,000 after purchasing an additional 45,718 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

About Qualys

Qualys, Inc is a cloud-based security and compliance company that helps organizations identify, assess and manage cyber risk across their information technology environments. Its platform is designed to provide visibility into assets, vulnerabilities, configurations and compliance requirements across networks, endpoints, applications and cloud infrastructure.

The company’s offerings include vulnerability management, asset inventory, policy compliance, cloud security, web application security and endpoint detection and response.