Insider Selling: Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Insider Sells $166,967.12 in Stock

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) insider Bruce Posey sold 881 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.52, for a total value of $166,967.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 57,807 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,955,582.64. This trade represents a 1.50% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed 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 Trading Up 3.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:QLYS traded up $6.23 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $196.70. The company had a trading volume of 808,249 shares, compared to its average volume of 750,377. Qualys, Inc. has a 12 month low of $74.51 and a 12 month high of $206.25. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $182.98 and a 200 day simple moving average of $140.41. The stock has a market cap of $6.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.03 and a beta of 0.60.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $178.57 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.68 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. 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 forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on QLYS. TD Cowen upped their price target on Qualys from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 13th. Yorkville Ives assumed coverage on shares of Qualys in a research note on Monday, October 5th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $230.00 price objective on the stock. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Wedbush downgraded shares of Qualys from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $175.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Thursday, September 10th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Qualys has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $183.62.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qualys

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in Qualys by 28.8% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 47,295 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,155,000 after purchasing an additional 10,569 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP lifted its stake in Qualys by 306.4% in the first quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 36,253 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,185,000 after buying an additional 27,333 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its stake in Qualys by 63.5% in the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 17,251 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,372,000 after buying an additional 6,700 shares in the last quarter. Park State Asset Management bought a new position in Qualys in the second quarter valued at approximately $5,942,000. Finally, Chase Investment Counsel Corp acquired a new position in shares of Qualys in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,749,000. Institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

About Qualys

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

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