Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Insider Bruce Posey Sells 882 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Qualys insider Bruce Posey sold 882 shares at an average price of $158.17, totaling $139,505.94. The transaction, conducted under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, reduced his direct holdings by 1.39% to 62,689 shares.
• Qualys recently exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $1.95 in EPS versus the $1.81 consensus and revenue of $175.64 million, up 9.8% year over year. The company issued fiscal 2026 EPS guidance of $7.44 to $7.65.
• Analysts maintain a consensus “Hold” rating with an average price target of $142.53, while the stock recently traded at $138.28. Institutional investors own approximately 99.31% of Qualys shares.

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) insider Bruce Posey sold 882 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction on Monday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.17, for a total value of $139,505.94. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 62,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,915,519.13. This trade represents a 1.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Qualys Stock Performance

NASDAQ QLYS traded up $3.49 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $138.28. The company's stock had a trading volume of 139,763 shares, compared to its average volume of 758,111. The company's 50-day moving average is $125.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $110.48. Qualys, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $74.51 and a fifty-two week high of $167.86. The stock has a market cap of $4.87 billion, a PE ratio of 24.82 and a beta of 0.61.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.81 by $0.14. Qualys had a net margin of 29.41% and a return on equity of 37.15%. The company had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.63 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.67 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.440-7.650 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.730-1.800 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Qualys from $90.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a "sector perform" rating and issued a $145.00 target price on shares of Qualys in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Qualys from $85.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $139.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, William Blair lowered shares of Qualys from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. One 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Qualys presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $142.53.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of QLYS. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 24.1% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,372,587 shares of the software maker's stock worth $182,417,000 after buying an additional 266,924 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Qualys by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,256,002 shares of the software maker's stock worth $168,380,000 after acquiring an additional 48,877 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Qualys by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,156,412 shares of the software maker's stock worth $153,687,000 after acquiring an additional 75,397 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in Qualys by 46.9% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,012,100 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $144,133,000 after acquiring an additional 323,324 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Qualys by 127.0% during the first 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.31% of the company's stock.

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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