Bruce Posey Sells 1,000 Shares of Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Stock

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) insider Bruce Posey sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.00, for a total transaction of $155,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 63,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,853,505. The trade was a 1.55% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Qualys Stock Performance

Shares of QLYS opened at $157.55 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.29 and a beta of 0.61. Qualys, Inc. has a 52 week low of $74.51 and a 52 week high of $164.17. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $109.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $109.13.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81 by $0.14. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.15% and a net margin of 29.41%.The company had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $173.63 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.67 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.440-7.650 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.730-1.800 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qualys

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in QLYS. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its holdings in Qualys by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 1,985 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $264,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its stake in Qualys by 1.8% in the third quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 5,027 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $665,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its stake in Qualys by 4.6% in the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,038 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $291,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd grew its position in shares of Qualys by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,178 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $156,000 after acquiring an additional 98 shares during the period. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Qualys by 8.9% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,231 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $164,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the period. 99.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on QLYS shares. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their target price on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. William Blair cut shares of Qualys from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley set a $96.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Qualys from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Scotiabank raised shares of Qualys from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $100.00 to $190.00 in a research report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $132.29.

Key Headlines Impacting Qualys

Here are the key news stories impacting Qualys this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Scotiabank upgraded Qualys from sector perform to sector outperform and lifted its price target to $190 from $100, signaling meaningful upside and reinforcing bullish sentiment. Article link
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage argues Qualys could benefit from rising demand for vulnerability management, AI-driven security tools, and management’s FY2026 guidance, which may be supporting investor optimism. Article link
• Neutral Sentiment: CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 965 shares in a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. While insider selling can weigh on sentiment, this appears to be a routine transaction rather than a strong negative signal. SEC filing
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider Bruce K. Posey also sold 1,000 shares under a pre-arranged trading plan, adding to the recent insider-selling headlines but not necessarily changing the investment thesis. SEC filing

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.