Freestone Grove Partners LP Invests $9.45 Million in Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Key Points

• Freestone Grove Partners acquired 68,754 Qualys shares worth approximately $9.45 million, joining other institutional investors that have recently increased or initiated positions. Institutions and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company.
• Qualys reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with adjusted EPS of $1.98 versus the $1.78 consensus estimate and revenue of $182.18 million, up 11.1% year over year.
• Analysts maintain a consensus “Hold” rating with an average price target of $170.53, while insiders have sold 72,845 shares worth $9.38 million over the past three months.

Freestone Grove Partners LP acquired a new position in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 68,754 shares of the software maker's stock, valued at approximately $9,453,000. Freestone Grove Partners LP owned approximately 0.20% of Qualys at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Root Financial Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Qualys by 206.2% during the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 297 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Strive Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Qualys during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 204.3% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 213 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Kilter Group LLC bought a new stake in Qualys during the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in Qualys during the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on QLYS shares. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Qualys from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Wedbush dropped their target price on shares of Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Qualys from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Qualys from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Qualys has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $170.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Wendy Pfeiffer sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.19, for a total value of $79,095.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 12,210 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,931,499.90. This represents a 3.93% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 30,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 196,686 shares of the company's stock, valued at $26,552,610. The trade was a 13.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 72,845 shares of company stock worth $9,377,536 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.72% of the company's stock.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of QLYS opened at $188.59 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $156.38 and a two-hundred day moving average of $117.42. The stock has a market cap of $6.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.63 and a beta of 0.60. Qualys, Inc. has a one year low of $74.51 and a one year high of $201.54.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.20. Qualys had a net margin of 29.38% and a return on equity of 37.52%. The business had revenue of $182.18 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $178.57 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.68 EPS. The firm's quarterly 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. Analysts anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.85 earnings per share for the current 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.

Continue following MarketBeat

Add MarketBeat as your preferred source on Google to see our latest stories in your feed.

Add As Preferred Source