Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Qualys Call Options (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders purchased 3,887 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 3,222% compared to the typical daily volume of 117 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on QLYS shares. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Qualys from $158.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Qualys from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Qualys in a report on Monday, December 29th. Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and set a $130.00 price objective (down from $145.00) on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $162.00 price objective on Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $143.57.

Qualys Stock Up 0.4%

NASDAQ QLYS opened at $132.50 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $4.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.68 and a beta of 0.50. Qualys has a twelve month low of $112.61 and a twelve month high of $155.47. The business’s fifty day moving average is $139.85 and its 200 day moving average is $136.05.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The software maker reported $1.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.56 by $0.30. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.40% and a net margin of 28.96%.The business had revenue of $169.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $166.30 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.56 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Qualys has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.930-7.000 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.730-1.800 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Qualys will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Qualys news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.12, for a total value of $1,250,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 252,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,191,936. The trade was a 3.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 3,077 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.99, for a total value of $449,211.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 71,776 shares in the company, valued at $10,478,578.24. The trade was a 4.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 33,113 shares of company stock valued at $4,734,903 over the last ninety days. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qualys

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Qualys during the 3rd quarter worth about $29,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 451.0% in the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 270 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 221 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP raised its position in shares of Qualys by 86.8% during the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 284 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 132 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Qualys in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Finally, Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Qualys during the third quarter valued at $55,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.