Clark Capital Management Group Inc. Purchases 291,192 Shares of Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Key Points

• Clark Capital Management Group increased its Qualys stake by 402.2% in the fourth quarter, buying 291,192 additional shares and bringing its total holding to 363,593 shares worth about $48.3 million.
• Several other institutional investors also added to or initiated positions in Qualys, and about 99.31% of the stock is owned by institutions.
• Qualys recently beat earnings expectations with Q1 EPS of $1.95 versus $1.81 expected and revenue up 9.8% year over year, though analysts remain cautious with a consensus rating of “Hold.”

Clark Capital Management Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) by 402.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 363,593 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 291,192 shares during the period. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. owned about 1.01% of Qualys worth $48,322,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in Qualys by 204.3% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 213 shares of the software maker's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in Qualys by 86.8% during the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 284 shares of the software maker's stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 132 shares during the last quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new stake in Qualys during the 4th quarter worth about $43,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Qualys by 127.0% in the 4th quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 345 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Horizon Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Qualys in the 3rd quarter valued at about $57,000. 99.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Thomas Berquist sold 939 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.75, for a total transaction of $103,994.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,781 shares of the company's stock, valued at $750,995.75. This represents a 12.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,031 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.67, for a total transaction of $115,131.77. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 82,180 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,177,040.60. This represents a 1.24% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 20,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,273,413 in the last 90 days. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Qualys Stock Down 0.9%

NASDAQ QLYS opened at $113.67 on Wednesday. Qualys, Inc. has a 12-month low of $74.51 and a 12-month high of $155.47. The company has a market capitalization of $4.00 billion, a PE ratio of 20.41 and a beta of 0.66. The firm's 50 day moving average is $95.63 and its 200-day moving average is $111.04.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.81 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.63 million. Qualys had a net margin of 29.41% and a return on equity of 37.15%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company 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, sell-side analysts expect that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

QLYS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their target price on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $125.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley set a $96.00 target price on shares of Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Qualys from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, William Blair lowered shares of Qualys from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $122.14.

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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