Insider Selling: Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) CEO Sells $341,088.00 in Stock

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) CEO Sumedh Thakar sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.04, for a total transaction of $341,088.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 256,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,814,272. This trade represents a 0.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Qualys Stock Performance

QLYS opened at $143.57 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.66 and a beta of 0.58. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $133.18 and its 200 day moving average is $135.38. Qualys, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $112.61 and a fifty-two week high of $159.73.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $169.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $166.30 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.19% and a net margin of 29.04%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.56 earnings per share. Qualys has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.930-7.000 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 1.730-1.800 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in QLYS. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Qualys by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 382,100 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $54,591,000 after acquiring an additional 10,359 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Qualys by 100.6% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 136,835 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $19,535,000 after purchasing an additional 68,632 shares during the last quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Qualys by 9.3% during the second quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 545,380 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $77,918,000 after purchasing an additional 46,296 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Qualys in the second quarter worth about $330,000. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Qualys by 818.1% in the 1st quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 17,857 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,249,000 after buying an additional 15,912 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

QLYS has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Qualys from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. Northland Capmk raised shares of Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $130.00 price target (down previously from $145.00) on shares of Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Qualys from $90.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $140.38.

Qualys Company Profile

Qualys, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud-based platform delivering information technology (IT), security, and compliance solutions in the United States and internationally. It offers Qualys Cloud Apps, which include Cybersecurity Asset Management and External Attack Surface Management; Vulnerability Management, Detection and Response; Web Application Scanning; Patch Management; Custom Assessment and Remediation; Multi-Vector Endpoint Detection and Response; Context Extended Detection and Response; Policy Compliance; File Integrity Monitoring; and Qualys TotalCloud, as well as Cloud Workload Protection, Cloud Detection and Response, Cloud Security Posture Management, Infrastructure as Code, and Container Security.