Renaissance Technologies LLC Buys 17,300 Shares of Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 3.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 497,600 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,300 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC’s holdings in Qualys were worth $43,714,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in Qualys by 24.1% in 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 buying an additional 266,924 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 48,877 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of Qualys by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,156,412 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $153,687,000 after acquiring an additional 75,397 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Qualys by 46.9% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,012,100 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $144,133,000 after acquiring an additional 323,324 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 127.0% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 832,796 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $73,161,000 after acquiring an additional 465,952 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

QLYS has been the topic of a number of research reports. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Qualys from $90.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their target price on Qualys from $150.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wall Street Zen cut Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $145.00 price target on shares of Qualys in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, William Blair downgraded Qualys from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $142.53.

Insider Transactions at Qualys

In related news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,000 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 6th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $9,853,505. The trade was a 1.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 196,686 shares in the company, valued at $26,552,610. The trade was a 13.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 73,846 shares of company stock worth $9,239,073. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Qualys Stock Down 2.0%

Shares of Qualys stock opened at $134.79 on Tuesday. Qualys, Inc. has a twelve month low of $74.51 and a twelve month high of $167.86. The stock has a market cap of $4.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.20 and a beta of 0.61. The company’s fifty day moving average is $125.87 and its 200 day moving average is $110.48.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $175.64 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.63 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.15% and a net margin of 29.41%.Qualys’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $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. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.