SG Americas Securities LLC Sells 23,509 Shares of Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

SG Americas Securities LLC reduced its holdings in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 63.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,527 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 23,509 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Qualys were worth $1,790,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in QLYS. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 46.9% in 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 acquiring an additional 323,324 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its position in Qualys by 8.4% during the second quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,137,864 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $162,567,000 after purchasing an additional 88,051 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Qualys by 100.6% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 136,835 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $19,535,000 after purchasing an additional 68,632 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,051,673 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $150,253,000 after purchasing an additional 65,924 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 122.7% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 107,027 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $15,291,000 after purchasing an additional 58,960 shares during the period. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on QLYS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Qualys from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Qualys from $145.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $117.00 target price on shares of Qualys in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $139.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Northland Capmk raised shares of Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $143.57.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Qualys news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 8,500 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.12, for a total transaction of $1,250,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 252,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,191,936. The trade was a 3.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 3,077 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.99, for a total transaction of $449,211.23. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 71,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,478,578.24. The trade was a 4.11% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 28,653 shares of company stock valued at $4,134,748 over the last quarter. 0.88% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Qualys Trading Up 0.7%

NASDAQ QLYS opened at $134.03 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $4.81 billion, a PE ratio of 25.97 and a beta of 0.50. Qualys, Inc. has a 12 month low of $112.61 and a 12 month high of $155.47. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $141.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $136.51.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The software maker reported $1.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.56 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $169.88 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $166.30 million. Qualys had a net margin of 28.96% and a return on equity of 37.40%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.56 EPS. Qualys has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.930-7.000 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.730-1.800 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current year.

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.