Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) CEO Sumedh Thakar Sells 10,000 Shares

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) CEO Sumedh Thakar sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.75, for a total transaction of $1,267,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 226,686 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,732,450.50. This trade represents a 4.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of QLYS opened at $137.49 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $102.43 and its 200-day moving average is $108.99. Qualys, Inc. has a 12-month low of $74.51 and a 12-month high of $155.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.68 and a beta of 0.66.

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

More Qualys News

Here are the key news stories impacting Qualys this week:

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan Chase upgraded Qualys from underweight to neutral and raised its price target sharply to $139 from $87, which likely helped support buying interest. Benzinga report on JPMorgan upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: The stock has also been benefiting from recent strength in the cybersecurity space, with a Zacks note highlighting a prior session’s jump on above-average volume. Zacks article on QLYS share strength
• Neutral Sentiment: Qualys also reported strong quarterly results earlier this month, beating earnings and revenue estimates and reaffirming FY2026 guidance, which continues to support the longer-term bull case.
• Neutral Sentiment: Broker sentiment remains mixed overall, with the stock still carrying an average Hold rating despite the JPMorgan upgrade.
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Sumedh S. Thakar disclosed another sale of 10,000 shares under a pre-arranged 10b5-1 plan, which can create some investor caution even though the sale was scheduled in advance.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on QLYS shares. Truist Financial cut their target price on Qualys from $120.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley set a $96.00 price target on Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on Qualys from $135.00 to $100.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Qualys from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $125.86.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of QLYS. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Qualys by 62.4% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 125,636 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $16,769,000 after acquiring an additional 48,267 shares during the period. Comerica Bank boosted its holdings in Qualys by 100.6% during the fourth quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 22,710 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,018,000 after acquiring an additional 11,391 shares during the period. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH grew its position in shares of Qualys by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 208,832 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $27,754,000 after purchasing an additional 18,711 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Qualys by 147.0% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 33,416 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,441,000 after purchasing an additional 19,889 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 6,727.1% in the fourth quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 14,883 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,978,000 after purchasing an additional 14,665 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

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.