HighTower Advisors LLC Raises Stock Position in Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 748.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 31,346 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 27,652 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC owned 0.09% of Qualys worth $4,148,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Qualys by 4.6% in the third quarter. Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC now owns 32,750 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,334,000 after buying an additional 1,428 shares during the period. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Qualys in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $55,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its stake in shares of Qualys by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 12,868 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,703,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the period. Leuthold Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 3.5% during the third quarter. Leuthold Group LLC now owns 24,234 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,207,000 after purchasing an additional 824 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in Qualys in the third quarter worth $384,000. Institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on QLYS. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Monday, December 29th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Qualys from $145.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Northland Securities set a $162.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Qualys from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $140.46.

Qualys Stock Up 0.2%

NASDAQ:QLYS opened at $86.83 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.96 and a beta of 0.53. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $126.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $132.36. Qualys, Inc. has a 52 week low of $85.14 and a 52 week high of $155.47.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $175.28 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $173.18 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.65% and a net margin of 29.64%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.60 EPS. Qualys has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.760-1.830 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 7.170-7.450 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In related news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,101 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.34, for a total value of $145,706.34. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 68,598 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,078,259.32. This trade represents a 1.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 6,799 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.46, for a total transaction of $873,399.54. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 88,489 shares in the company, valued at $11,367,296.94. This represents a 7.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 42,227 shares of company stock valued at $5,875,962 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.