KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS Boosts Stock Position in Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS lifted its stake in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 27.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 18,400 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS’s holdings in Qualys were worth $2,435,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in QLYS. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in Qualys in the 2nd quarter valued at $44,000. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Qualys by 82.0% during the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 484 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 218 shares during the period. Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Qualys during the 2nd quarter valued at about $73,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 3,218.8% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 531 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 515 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Qualys by 482.0% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 646 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $92,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Stock Performance

NASDAQ:QLYS opened at $133.15 on Friday. Qualys, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $112.61 and a fifty-two week high of $155.47. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $141.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $136.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.80 and a beta of 0.50.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The software maker reported $1.86 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.56 by $0.30. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.40% and a net margin of 28.96%.The company had revenue of $169.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $166.30 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.56 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Qualys has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.930-7.000 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.730-1.800 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In other Qualys news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 3,077 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.99, for a total value of $449,211.23. Following the completion of the transaction, 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. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 252,800 shares in the company, valued at $37,191,936. This trade represents a 3.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 37,153 shares of company stock worth $5,212,718 in the last three months. 0.88% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

QLYS has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their target price on shares of Qualys from $158.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Northland Securities set a $162.00 price target on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Qualys from $150.00 to $139.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $117.00 target price on shares of Qualys in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Monday, December 29th. One 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 given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $143.57.

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.