Legal & General Group Plc Takes Position in Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 1,437,373 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $197,624,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned 4.15% of Qualys as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of QLYS. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Qualys in the second quarter worth about $792,316,000. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Qualys by 24.1% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,372,587 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $182,417,000 after buying an additional 266,924 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Qualys by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,256,002 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $168,380,000 after buying an additional 48,877 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Qualys by 46.9% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,012,100 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $144,133,000 after buying an additional 323,324 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Qualys by 127.0% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 832,796 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $73,161,000 after acquiring an additional 465,952 shares during the period. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Qualys Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:QLYS opened at $176.67 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $154.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $116.88. The firm has a market cap of $6.11 billion, a PE ratio of 30.57 and a beta of 0.60. Qualys, Inc. has a one year low of $74.51 and a one year high of $201.54.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.20. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.52% and a net margin of 29.38%.The business had revenue of $182.18 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $178.57 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.68 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.740-7.880 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.910-1.980 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. DA Davidson increased their target price on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Qualys from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Qualys from $145.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Qualys from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Qualys from $100.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Qualys presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $170.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Wendy Pfeiffer sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.19, for a total value of $79,095.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 12,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,931,499.90. This trade represents a 3.93% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,627 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.04, for a total value of $248,996.08. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 75,743 shares in the company, valued at $11,591,708.72. The trade was a 2.10% 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 a total of 72,845 shares of company stock worth $9,377,536 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

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.