HighTower Advisors LLC Grows Stake in Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 748.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 31,346 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 27,652 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Qualys were worth $4,148,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of QLYS. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Qualys by 46.9% during 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 purchasing an additional 323,324 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 100.6% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 136,835 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $19,535,000 after buying an additional 68,632 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Qualys by 6.7% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,051,673 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $150,253,000 after buying an additional 65,924 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Qualys by 122.7% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 107,027 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $15,291,000 after buying an additional 58,960 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in Qualys by 12.7% in the second quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 506,792 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $72,400,000 after acquiring an additional 57,142 shares during the period. 99.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In other news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.12, for a total transaction of $1,250,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 252,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,191,936. This represents a 3.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 3,077 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.99, for a total transaction of $449,211.23. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 71,776 shares in the company, valued at $10,478,578.24. This represents a 4.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 42,227 shares of company stock valued at $5,875,962. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of QLYS opened at $86.83 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.96 and a beta of 0.53. Qualys, Inc. has a 1 year low of $85.14 and a 1 year high of $155.47. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $126.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $132.36.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $175.28 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $173.18 million. Qualys had a net margin of 29.64% and a return on equity of 37.65%. Qualys’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.60 earnings per share. Qualys has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.760-1.830 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 7.170-7.450 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on QLYS shares. Truist Financial reissued a “hold” rating and set a $120.00 price objective (down from $130.00) on shares of Qualys in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Scotiabank cut their price target on Qualys from $139.00 to $135.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 6th. Wall Street Zen raised Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 8th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $117.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on Qualys from $140.00 to $134.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Qualys currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $140.46.

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.