Caxton Associates LLP Acquires New Shares in Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Caxton Associates LLP acquired a new position in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 14,513 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $1,275,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Strive Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Qualys in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its holdings in shares of Qualys by 204.3% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 213 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP raised its position in shares of Qualys by 86.8% during the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 284 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 132 shares during the period. Root Financial Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Qualys by 206.2% during the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 297 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in shares of Qualys during the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of Qualys stock opened at $137.48 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.68 and a beta of 0.61. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $125.13 and its 200-day moving average is $110.59. Qualys, Inc. has a one year low of $74.51 and a one year high of $167.86.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81 by $0.14. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.15% and a net margin of 29.41%.The business had revenue of $175.64 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.63 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.67 earnings per share. Qualys’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. 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, equities analysts expect that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Qualys

In other Qualys news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.00, for a total transaction of $4,050,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 196,686 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,552,610. This represents a 13.23% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 2,384 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 66,301 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,642,034.18. This represents a 3.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 73,846 shares of company stock worth $9,239,073. Insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on QLYS shares. Weiss Ratings upgraded Qualys from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of 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, June 30th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $96.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $141.80.

Qualys 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.