Man Group plc Acquires New Position in Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Man Group plc bought a new position in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 11,657 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $1,603,000.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on QLYS. Robert W. Baird set a $160.00 price objective on Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Scotiabank upped their price target on Qualys from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Wedbush lowered their price target on Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $190.00 price objective on Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Qualys from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, August 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Qualys presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $170.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.00, for a total value of $155,000.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 63,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,853,505. This trade represents a 1.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing 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, Director Thomas Berquist sold 939 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.75, for a total transaction of $103,994.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 6,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $750,995.75. This represents a 12.16% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 58,614 shares of company stock worth $7,747,968. 0.72% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Qualys Stock Down 3.5%

Shares of QLYS stock opened at $170.83 on Thursday. Qualys, Inc. has a 52 week low of $74.51 and a 52 week high of $201.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.91 billion, a PE ratio of 29.56 and a beta of 0.62. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $161.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of $119.42.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $178.57 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.68 earnings per share. The company’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. Analysts expect that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.