BlackRock Inc. Buys Shares of 5,762,721 Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Key Points

• BlackRock acquired 5.76 million Qualys shares in the second quarter, valued at approximately $792.3 million, giving it a 16.66% stake. Institutional investors collectively own 99.31% of the company.
• Qualys exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $1.98 EPS versus the $1.78 consensus and revenue of $182.18 million, up 11.1% year over year.
• Analysts maintain a generally cautious outlook: Qualys has an average “Hold” rating and a consensus price target of $170.53, below its reported share price of $181.98. Several insiders have also sold shares under pre-arranged trading plans.

BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 5,762,721 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $792,316,000. BlackRock Inc. owned about 16.66% of Qualys as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of QLYS. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in Qualys by 3,948.0% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 2,024 shares of the software maker's stock worth $255,000 after buying an additional 1,974 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Qualys during the 2nd quarter worth about $292,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in Qualys by 3,218.8% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 531 shares of the software maker's stock worth $76,000 after acquiring an additional 515 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Qualys by 482.0% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 646 shares of the software maker's stock worth $92,000 after acquiring an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi raised its position in shares of Qualys by 47.1% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 21,365 shares of the software maker's stock worth $3,076,000 after acquiring an additional 6,844 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

QLYS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird set a $160.00 price objective on Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Truist Financial raised their target price on Qualys from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Qualys from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Wall Street Zen raised Qualys from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Qualys from $139.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Qualys presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $170.53.

Qualys Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of QLYS stock opened at $181.98 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $151.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $115.98. Qualys, Inc. has a 12 month low of $74.51 and a 12 month high of $201.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.30 billion, a PE ratio of 31.48 and a beta of 0.60.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.20. Qualys had a net margin of 29.38% and a return on equity of 37.52%. The firm had revenue of $182.18 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $178.57 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.68 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. 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 analysts predict that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 30,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.00, for a total value of $4,050,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 196,686 shares in the company, valued at $26,552,610. This trade represents a 13.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 866 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.23, for a total value of $159,543.18. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 59,554 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,971,633.42. The trade was a 1.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 72,845 shares of company stock valued at $9,377,536. 0.72% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.

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