Hsbc Holdings PLC Sells 9,895 Shares of Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Key Points

• HSBC Holdings PLC cut its Qualys stake by 36.9% in the fourth quarter, selling 9,895 shares and leaving it with 16,898 shares worth about $2.25 million.
• Insider selling continued, including CEO Sumedh S. Thakar’s sale of 30,000 shares for $4.05 million under a pre-arranged 10b5-1 plan. Insiders have sold 73,846 shares worth about $9.24 million over the last 90 days.
• Qualys posted solid quarterly results, beating EPS estimates with $1.95 per share and reporting revenue of $175.64 million, up 9.8% year over year. The company also raised guidance for FY 2026 and Q2 2026, while analysts currently rate the stock a consensus Hold.

Hsbc Holdings PLC decreased its holdings in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) by 36.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,898 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 9,895 shares during the quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC's holdings in Qualys were worth $2,248,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Qualys during the 4th quarter worth approximately $78,591,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Qualys in the third quarter valued at approximately $45,854,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in Qualys by 46.9% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,012,100 shares of the software maker's stock worth $144,133,000 after buying an additional 323,324 shares in the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. grew its position in Qualys by 402.2% during the fourth quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 363,593 shares of the software maker's stock worth $48,322,000 after buying an additional 291,192 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Qualys by 291.0% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 366,844 shares of the software maker's stock worth $48,754,000 after acquiring an additional 273,017 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.31% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 30,000 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.00, for a total transaction of $4,050,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 196,686 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $26,552,610. The trade was a 13.23% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 2,384 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.18, for a total transaction of $238,829.12. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 66,301 shares in the company, valued at $6,642,034.18. This trade represents a 3.47% 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 sold a total of 73,846 shares of company stock worth $9,239,073 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.88% of the company's stock.

Qualys Stock Performance

Shares of QLYS stock opened at $152.69 on Friday. Qualys, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $74.51 and a fifty-two week high of $164.17. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $113.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $109.63. The company has a market cap of $5.38 billion, a PE ratio of 27.41 and a beta of 0.61.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on QLYS shares. TD Cowen reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Qualys in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Wedbush reduced their target price on Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Morgan Stanley set a $96.00 price target on Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Qualys from an "underweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $87.00 to $139.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Qualys from $120.00 to $85.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $132.29.

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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