Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) CEO Sells $1,267,500.00 in Stock

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) CEO Sumedh Thakar sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.75, for a total transaction of $1,267,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 226,686 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,732,450.50. This trade represents a 4.23% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Qualys Trading Up 7.1%

NASDAQ QLYS traded up $9.17 on Tuesday, hitting $137.49. 1,826,483 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 761,978. Qualys, Inc. has a 1-year low of $74.51 and a 1-year high of $155.47. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $101.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $109.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.84 billion, a PE ratio of 24.68 and a beta of 0.65.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81 by $0.14. Qualys had a net margin of 29.41% and a return on equity of 37.15%. The firm had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $173.63 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.67 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on QLYS. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price objective on Qualys from $150.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Qualys from $135.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Qualys from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $87.00 to $139.00 in a report on Tuesday. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Qualys has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $125.86.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Qualys by 3,948.0% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 2,024 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $255,000 after buying an additional 1,974 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Qualys in the 2nd quarter valued at $292,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in Qualys by 3,218.8% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 531 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 515 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Qualys by 482.0% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 646 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $92,000 after acquiring an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its holdings in Qualys by 47.1% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 21,365 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,076,000 after acquiring an additional 6,844 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.