Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Purchases Shares of 20,100 Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund purchased 20,100 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $2,764,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Strive Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Qualys during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 204.3% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 213 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Kilter Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Qualys in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Root Financial Partners LLC lifted its stake in Qualys by 206.2% in the 1st quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 297 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in Qualys during the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Stock Performance

QLYS opened at $187.05 on Friday. Qualys, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $74.51 and a fifty-two week high of $201.54. The company has a market capitalization of $6.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.36 and a beta of 0.60. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $157.90 and a 200-day moving average of $117.91.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.20. Qualys had a net margin of 29.38% and a return on equity of 37.52%. The business had revenue of $182.18 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $178.57 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.68 earnings per share. Qualys’s revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.740-7.880 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.910-1.980 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In other news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 30,000 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.00, for a total value of $4,050,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 196,686 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,552,610. The trade was a 13.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.00, for a total value of $155,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 63,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,853,505. This trade represents a 1.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 72,845 shares of company stock valued at $9,377,536 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on QLYS. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Qualys from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Qualys from $145.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Wedbush reduced their target price on shares of Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $170.53.

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.