Systematic Financial Management LP Purchases New Shares in Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Systematic Financial Management LP acquired a new stake in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 114,026 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $10,017,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in QLYS. Sei Investments Co. increased its position in Qualys by 28.8% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 47,295 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,155,000 after buying an additional 10,569 shares during the period. NewEdge Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 46.5% during the first quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 16,538 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,453,000 after buying an additional 5,252 shares in the last quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp bought a new stake in shares of Qualys in the first quarter valued at about $1,405,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 6.4% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 763,099 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $67,041,000 after acquiring an additional 45,718 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its stake in shares of Qualys by 251.3% in the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 27,958 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,456,000 after acquiring an additional 20,000 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Qualys Stock Performance

QLYS opened at $137.48 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.68 and a beta of 0.61. Qualys, Inc. has a 52-week low of $74.51 and a 52-week high of $167.86. The business’s fifty day moving average is $125.13 and its 200-day moving average is $110.59.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $173.63 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.15% and a net margin of 29.41%.Qualys’s revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $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. On average, research analysts predict that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, 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 transaction of $4,050,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 196,686 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,552,610. This represents a 13.23% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 2,384 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.18, for a total transaction of $238,829.12. Following the sale, the insider owned 66,301 shares in the company, valued at $6,642,034.18. This represents a 3.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 73,846 shares of company stock valued at $9,239,073 in the last 90 days. 0.72% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on QLYS shares. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Qualys from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. William Blair downgraded shares of Qualys from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley set a $96.00 target price on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wedbush lowered their target price on shares of Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Qualys from $85.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. One research 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 given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $141.80.

About Qualys

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.