Qualys, Inc. $QLYS Shares Acquired by Retirement Systems of Alabama

Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its position in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 23.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 181,308 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 33,908 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama owned about 0.50% of Qualys worth $23,992,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in QLYS. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Qualys by 3,948.0% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 2,024 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $255,000 after buying an additional 1,974 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Qualys in the second quarter valued at approximately $292,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio grew its holdings in Qualys by 2.6% during the second quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 33,567 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,796,000 after acquiring an additional 848 shares during the period. Dakota Wealth Management purchased a new position in Qualys in the second quarter worth $204,000. Finally, Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lifted its holdings in Qualys by 1.8% in the second quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 156,614 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $22,375,000 after acquiring an additional 2,794 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In other Qualys news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,101 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.34, for a total value of $145,706.34. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 68,598 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,078,259.32. This represents a 1.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 5,000 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.76, for a total transaction of $668,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 247,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,145,728. This trade represents a 1.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 34,214 shares of company stock valued at $4,880,609 over the last quarter. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

QLYS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Qualys from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Berenberg Bank initiated coverage on shares of Qualys in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $165.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $117.00 price target on shares of Qualys in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Qualys in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $162.00 price objective on Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Qualys presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $143.57.

Qualys Price Performance

QLYS stock opened at $132.18 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $139.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $135.67. Qualys, Inc. has a 12 month low of $112.61 and a 12 month high of $155.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.74 billion, a PE ratio of 25.62 and a beta of 0.50.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The software maker reported $1.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.56 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $169.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $166.30 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.40% and a net margin of 28.96%.Qualys’s revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $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 anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current 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.