Handelsbanken Fonder AB Has $2.37 Million Stock Position in Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Key Points

• Handelsbanken Fonder increased its Qualys stake by 63.5% in the second quarter, purchasing 6,700 additional shares for a total position valued at approximately $2.37 million. Institutional investors collectively own 99.31% of Qualys.
• Qualys exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $1.98 in adjusted EPS versus the $1.78 consensus and revenue of $182.18 million, up 11.1% year over year. The company issued fiscal 2026 EPS guidance of $7.74–$7.88.
• Qualys shares opened at $186.05, near their 52-week high of $201.54, while analysts maintained an overall “Hold” rating with an average price target of $170.53. Insiders sold 76,855 shares worth about $9.7 million during the latest quarter.

Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its stake in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) by 63.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,251 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 6,700 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB's holdings in Qualys were worth $2,372,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in Qualys by 24.1% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,372,587 shares of the software maker's stock worth $182,417,000 after acquiring an additional 266,924 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Qualys by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,256,002 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $168,380,000 after acquiring an additional 48,877 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,156,412 shares of the software maker's stock worth $153,687,000 after purchasing an additional 75,397 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 46.9% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,012,100 shares of the software maker's stock worth $144,133,000 after purchasing an additional 323,324 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Qualys by 127.0% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 832,796 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $73,161,000 after purchasing an additional 465,952 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.00, for a total transaction of $4,050,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 196,686 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,552,610. This trade represents a 13.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,627 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.17, for a total value of $162,976.59. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 83,211 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,335,245.87. The trade was a 1.92% 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. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 76,855 shares of company stock valued at $9,706,670. 0.72% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Qualys Stock Performance

NASDAQ QLYS opened at $186.05 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $6.44 billion, a PE ratio of 32.19 and a beta of 0.60. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $143.63 and a 200-day moving average of $114.03. Qualys, Inc. has a 52-week low of $74.51 and a 52-week high of $201.54.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $182.18 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $178.57 million. Qualys had a net margin of 29.38% and a return on equity of 37.52%. Qualys's quarterly revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.68 EPS. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.740-7.880 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.910-1.980 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on QLYS. Wedbush cut their target price on shares of Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Zacks Research raised Qualys from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Qualys from $145.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Qualys from $135.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Qualys from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Two equities research 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 issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $170.53.

Qualys Profile

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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