Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Raises Stock Position in Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Key Points

• Fort Washington Investment Advisors increased its stake in Qualys by 16.8% in the first quarter, buying 35,040 more shares and bringing its total holding to 243,872 shares worth about $21.4 million.
• Insiders were sellers over the past month, with CEO Sumedh S. Thakar and Director Thomas Berquist both trimming their positions under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans. In total, insiders sold 21,881 shares valued at about $2.42 million over the last 90 days.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed to cautious, with multiple firms cutting ratings or price targets; the stock currently carries a consensus Hold rating and an average target price of $122.14. Qualys also reported Q1 earnings and revenue above estimates, with revenue up 9.8% year over year.

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) by 16.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 243,872 shares of the software maker's stock after acquiring an additional 35,040 shares during the quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH owned about 0.68% of Qualys worth $21,424,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in QLYS. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its position in Qualys by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 1,985 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $264,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 1.8% in the third quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 5,027 shares of the software maker's stock worth $665,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 4.6% in the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,038 shares of the software maker's stock worth $291,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd grew its stake in shares of Qualys by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,178 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $156,000 after buying an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Qualys by 8.9% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,231 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $164,000 after buying an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Thomas Berquist sold 939 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.75, for a total value of $103,994.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 6,781 shares of the company's stock, valued at $750,995.75. The trade was a 12.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 13,200 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.73, for a total value of $1,514,436.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 249,886 shares in the company, valued at $28,669,420.78. The trade was a 5.02% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,881 shares of company stock valued at $2,423,354. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on QLYS. Wall Street Zen downgraded Qualys from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Truist Financial decreased their price target on Qualys from $120.00 to $85.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 24th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Qualys from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Morgan Stanley set a $96.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, 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 report on Wednesday, May 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $122.14.

Qualys Stock Performance

Shares of QLYS opened at $123.27 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.13 and a beta of 0.65. Qualys, Inc. has a one year low of $74.51 and a one year high of $155.47. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $100.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $109.24.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) 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 company had revenue of $175.64 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $173.63 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.15% and a net margin of 29.41%.The business's revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.67 EPS. 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 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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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