Legal & General Group Plc Increases Stock Holdings in Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Qualys by 7% in the fourth quarter, buying 75,397 additional shares and ending with 1,156,412 shares valued at about $153.7 million.
• Institutional ownership in Qualys remains very high, with hedge funds and other institutions holding 99.31% of the stock. Several other firms also added positions recently, including Vanguard, AQR Capital, Fundsmith, and new buyers like RWA Wealth Partners and Alyeska.
• Analysts have turned more cautious on Qualys: the consensus rating is now “Hold” with an average price target of $122.14, while some firms have cut targets or downgraded the stock. Meanwhile, Qualys beat earnings expectations in its latest quarter, reporting $1.95 EPS and $175.64 million in revenue, though insiders also sold shares recently.

Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) by 7.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,156,412 shares of the software maker's stock after buying an additional 75,397 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 3.22% of Qualys worth $153,687,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of QLYS. RWA Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Qualys in the third quarter worth about $80,820,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Qualys in the third quarter worth about $45,854,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 46.9% in 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. Fundsmith LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 21.2% in the third quarter. Fundsmith LLP now owns 870,859 shares of the software maker's stock worth $115,241,000 after buying an additional 152,257 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 2.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,401,798 shares of the software maker's stock worth $582,490,000 after buying an additional 123,962 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on QLYS. Morgan Stanley set a $96.00 price target on shares of Qualys in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of Qualys from $120.00 to $85.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 24th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $100.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. William Blair downgraded shares of Qualys from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, DA Davidson lowered their target price on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $122.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,627 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were 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 $8,335,245.87. This trade represents a 1.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 865 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.43, for a total transaction of $86,871.95. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 65,436 shares in the company, valued at $6,571,737.48. This represents a 1.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 5,041 shares of company stock worth $505,202 over the last ninety days. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of QLYS opened at $98.32 on Thursday. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $90.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $114.30. The company has a market capitalization of $3.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.65 and a beta of 0.58. Qualys, Inc. has a 1-year low of $74.51 and a 1-year high of $155.47.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.81 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.63 million. Qualys had a net margin of 29.41% and a return on equity of 37.15%. Qualys's quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.67 earnings per share. 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 anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.47 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.

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