Insider Selling: Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) CEO Sells $1,077,970.00 in Stock

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) CEO Sumedh Thakar sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.82, for a total value of $1,077,970.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 203,951 shares in the company, valued at $25,865,065.82. The trade was a 4.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Qualys Stock Performance

Qualys stock opened at $126.60 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.27 and a beta of 0.62. Qualys, Inc. has a 52-week low of $112.61 and a 52-week high of $170.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $132.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $133.46.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The software maker reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.21. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.19% and a net margin of 29.04%.The company had revenue of $164.06 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $161.25 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.52 earnings per share. Qualys’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. Qualys has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.200-6.5 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 1.500-1.6 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qualys

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH raised its position in Qualys by 21.4% in the 3rd quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 190,121 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $25,159,000 after buying an additional 33,507 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its position in Qualys by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,146,289 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $151,688,000 after buying an additional 8,425 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its position in shares of Qualys by 79.4% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 5,015 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $664,000 after purchasing an additional 2,219 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Qualys by 200.3% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 6,874 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $910,000 after purchasing an additional 4,585 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Qualys by 24.2% during the 3rd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 3,395 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $449,000 after purchasing an additional 662 shares during the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on QLYS. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Qualys from $90.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Qualys from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Wall Street Zen lowered Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 30th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Wedbush increased their price target on Qualys from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $141.00.

About Qualys

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.