Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Insider Sells $155,438.34 in Stock

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) insider Bruce Posey sold 866 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.49, for a total transaction of $155,438.34. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 58,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,533,909.12. This represents a 1.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Qualys Stock Performance

QLYS opened at $182.94 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $170.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $128.18. The firm has a market cap of $6.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.65 and a beta of 0.62. Qualys, Inc. has a twelve month low of $74.51 and a twelve month high of $201.54.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.20. Qualys had a net margin of 29.38% and a return on equity of 37.52%. The firm had revenue of $182.18 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $178.57 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.68 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.740-7.880 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.910-1.980 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qualys

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of QLYS. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Qualys in the 2nd quarter valued at $792,316,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Qualys in the 2nd quarter worth about $197,624,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Qualys by 127.0% in 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 during the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. raised its position in Qualys by 402.2% in the 4th quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 363,593 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $48,322,000 after buying an additional 291,192 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Qualys in the second quarter valued at about $39,044,000. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

QLYS has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Qualys from $139.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 12th. Wedbush cut Qualys from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $175.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, September 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on shares of Qualys from $145.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group set a $190.00 price target on Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $173.87.

Qualys Company Profile

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.