Insider Selling: Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) CEO Sells $544,160.00 in Stock

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) CEO Sumedh Thakar sold 3,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.05, for a total value of $544,160.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 180,338 shares in the company, valued at $30,666,476.90. This represents a 1.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Qualys Stock Down 2.7%

QLYS opened at $178.08 on Friday. Qualys, Inc. has a 52 week low of $74.51 and a 52 week high of $201.54. The business’s 50 day moving average is $168.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $125.23. The firm has a market cap of $6.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.81 and a beta of 0.62.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $182.18 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $178.57 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.52% and a net margin of 29.38%.The company’s revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.68 earnings per share. 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 analysts expect that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Qualys in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $792,316,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in Qualys during the second quarter worth $197,624,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 465,952 shares during the period. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. raised its position in Qualys by 402.2% in the fourth quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 363,593 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $48,322,000 after acquiring an additional 291,192 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Qualys in the second quarter worth $39,044,000. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on QLYS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Qualys from $139.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 12th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Qualys from $150.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $190.00 price target on Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $173.87.

About Qualys

Qualys, Inc is a cloud-based security and compliance company that helps organizations identify, assess and manage cyber risk across their information technology environments. Its platform is designed to provide visibility into assets, vulnerabilities, configurations and compliance requirements across networks, endpoints, applications and cloud infrastructure.

The company’s offerings include vulnerability management, asset inventory, policy compliance, cloud security, web application security and endpoint detection and response.