Qualys, Inc. $QLYS Shares Acquired by Fundsmith LLP

Fundsmith LLP boosted its position in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 21.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 870,859 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 152,257 shares during the quarter. Qualys accounts for approximately 0.6% of Fundsmith LLP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Fundsmith LLP’s holdings in Qualys were worth $115,241,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Qualys by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,401,798 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $582,490,000 after acquiring an additional 123,962 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,146,289 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $151,688,000 after purchasing an additional 8,425 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Qualys by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,115,717 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $159,402,000 after purchasing an additional 44,000 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Qualys by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,081,015 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $143,051,000 after purchasing an additional 29,342 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised 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 worth $144,133,000 after purchasing an additional 323,324 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

QLYS has been the subject of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Qualys in a report on Monday, December 29th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $120.00 price target (down from $130.00) on shares of Qualys in a report on Friday, February 6th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Qualys from $139.00 to $135.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Zacks Research lowered Qualys from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Berenberg Bank assumed coverage on Qualys in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $165.00 target price on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Qualys currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $140.46.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.12, for a total value of $1,250,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 252,800 shares in the company, valued at $37,191,936. This represents a 3.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,101 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.34, for a total value of $145,706.34. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 68,598 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,078,259.32. The trade was a 1.58% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 30,744 shares of company stock valued at $4,186,464. Company insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of QLYS opened at $99.71 on Friday. Qualys, Inc. has a one year low of $85.14 and a one year high of $155.47. The company has a 50-day moving average of $115.14 and a two-hundred day moving average of $129.20. The stock has a market cap of $3.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.33 and a beta of 0.62.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $175.28 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.18 million. Qualys had a net margin of 29.64% and a return on equity of 37.65%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.60 earnings per share. Qualys has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.760-1.830 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 7.170-7.450 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Qualys Company 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.