Sumedh Thakar Sells 10,000 Shares of Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Stock

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) CEO Sumedh Thakar sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.48, for a total transaction of $1,204,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 236,686 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,515,929.28. The trade was a 4.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of QLYS opened at $137.49 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $102.43 and its 200-day moving average is $108.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.68 and a beta of 0.66. Qualys, Inc. has a 12-month low of $74.51 and a 12-month high of $155.47.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its 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 business had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.63 million. Qualys had a net margin of 29.41% and a return on equity of 37.15%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.67 EPS. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.440-7.650 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.730-1.800 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Qualys during the 4th quarter valued at about $78,591,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 127.0% during 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 period. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Qualys during the third quarter worth approximately $45,854,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in Qualys by 46.9% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Clark Capital Management Group Inc. lifted 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 worth $48,322,000 after buying an additional 291,192 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Qualys News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Qualys this week:

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan Chase upgraded Qualys from underweight to neutral and raised its price target sharply to $139 from $87, which likely helped support buying interest. Benzinga report on JPMorgan upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: The stock has also been benefiting from recent strength in the cybersecurity space, with a Zacks note highlighting a prior session’s jump on above-average volume. Zacks article on QLYS share strength
• Neutral Sentiment: Qualys also reported strong quarterly results earlier this month, beating earnings and revenue estimates and reaffirming FY2026 guidance, which continues to support the longer-term bull case.
• Neutral Sentiment: Broker sentiment remains mixed overall, with the stock still carrying an average Hold rating despite the JPMorgan upgrade.
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Sumedh S. Thakar disclosed another sale of 10,000 shares under a pre-arranged 10b5-1 plan, which can create some investor caution even though the sale was scheduled in advance.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on QLYS. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Qualys from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $87.00 to $139.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Truist Financial reduced their target price on Qualys from $120.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 24th. Wedbush decreased their price target on Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price target on Qualys from $135.00 to $100.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $125.86.

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.