Qualys, Inc. $QLYS Shares Bought by Trexquant Investment LP

Key Points

• Trexquant Investment LP increased its stake in Qualys, Inc. by 75.4% during Q1, owning 91,191 shares valued at approximately $11.48 million.
• Institutional investors own a significant 99.31% of Qualys' stock, with various hedge funds raising their stakes in the company recently.
• Qualys reported $1.68 earnings per share, surpassing analysts' expectations and reflecting a 10.3% year-over-year revenue growth.

Trexquant Investment LP boosted its holdings in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Free Report) by 75.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 91,191 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 39,214 shares during the quarter. Trexquant Investment LP owned about 0.25% of Qualys worth $11,484,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Qualys by 24.4% in the 1st quarter. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 41,370 shares of the software maker's stock worth $5,210,000 after buying an additional 8,120 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in Qualys by 4.0% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 8,143 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,036,000 after purchasing an additional 310 shares in the last quarter. Novem Group boosted its position in Qualys by 35.0% during the first quarter. Novem Group now owns 7,008 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $883,000 after purchasing an additional 1,817 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Qualys by 1.1% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 110,027 shares of the software maker's stock worth $13,856,000 after purchasing an additional 1,177 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Verity Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Qualys during the first quarter valued at about $360,000. 99.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Qualys Stock Performance

NASDAQ QLYS traded down $0.40 on Thursday, reaching $135.48. 56,246 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 334,254. Qualys, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $112.61 and a fifty-two week high of $170.00. The firm has a market cap of $4.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.05 and a beta of 0.65. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $136.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $133.22.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The software maker reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.47 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $164.06 million during 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 company's revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.52 EPS. Qualys has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.200-6.5 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 1.500-1.6 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In other Qualys news, Director John A. Zangardi sold 3,103 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.94, for a total transaction of $418,718.82. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 4,071 shares in the company, valued at approximately $549,340.74. The trade was a 43.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.95, for a total transaction of $1,104,575.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 207,920 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $27,019,204. The trade was a 3.93% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 51,378 shares of company stock worth $7,139,186. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on QLYS. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of Qualys from $131.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Qualys from $90.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Qualys from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Zacks Research raised Qualys to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their price target on Qualys from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Qualys has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $141.00.

About Qualys

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.