HighTower Advisors LLC Cuts Stake in Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Key Points

• HighTower Advisors LLC sold 2,517 shares of Qualys, Inc., reducing its holdings by 43.8% in the first quarter, leaving it with 3,232 shares valued at approximately $407,000.
• Several institutional investors, including SBI Securities and Manchester Capital Management, have increased their positions significantly in Qualys, indicating growing interest in the company.
• Qualys recently reported a quarterly EPS of $1.68, exceeding analyst estimates and marking a 10.3% year-over-year revenue growth, with stock analysts generally rating it as a "Hold."

HighTower Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) by 43.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,232 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 2,517 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC's holdings in Qualys were worth $407,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Qualys by 4.8% during the first quarter. Taylor Hoffman Capital Management LLC now owns 29,622 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $3,811,000 after purchasing an additional 1,346 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its holdings in shares of Qualys by 45.5% during the first quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 44,218 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $5,568,000 after acquiring an additional 13,818 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Qualys during the first quarter valued at approximately $13,291,000. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Qualys during the first quarter valued at approximately $772,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Qualys by 2.8% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 415,582 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $52,334,000 after acquiring an additional 11,481 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.31% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,018 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.26, for a total value of $134,640.68. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 94,468 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $12,494,337.68. This represents a 1.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Wendy Pfeiffer sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.72, for a total value of $25,944.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 11,082 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,437,557.04. This represents a 1.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 51,378 shares of company stock valued at $7,139,186 over the last 90 days. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on QLYS shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded Qualys from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, August 30th. Scotiabank upped their target price on Qualys from $142.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Qualys from $90.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Zacks Research upgraded Qualys to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Qualys from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $141.00.

Qualys Price Performance

QLYS stock traded up $0.66 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $134.95. The stock had a trading volume of 334,396 shares, compared to its average volume of 284,499. The firm has a market cap of $4.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.94 and a beta of 0.65. The business has a 50-day moving average of $136.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $133.07. Qualys, Inc. has a 52-week low of $112.61 and a 52-week high of $170.00.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The software maker reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.47 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $164.06 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $161.25 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.19% and a net margin of 29.04%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.52 earnings per share. Qualys has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.200-6.5 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 1.500-1.6 EPS. Research analysts predict that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Qualys Company Profile

Qualys, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud-based platform delivering information technology (IT), security, and compliance solutions in the United States and internationally. It offers Qualys Cloud Apps, which include Cybersecurity Asset Management and External Attack Surface Management; Vulnerability Management, Detection and Response; Web Application Scanning; Patch Management; Custom Assessment and Remediation; Multi-Vector Endpoint Detection and Response; Context Extended Detection and Response; Policy Compliance; File Integrity Monitoring; and Qualys TotalCloud, as well as Cloud Workload Protection, Cloud Detection and Response, Cloud Security Posture Management, Infrastructure as Code, and Container Security.