California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 21,482 Shares of Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

California Public Employees Retirement System lessened its stake in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 22.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 75,880 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 21,482 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.22% of Qualys worth $6,666,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in QLYS. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in Qualys by 24.1% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,372,587 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $182,417,000 after buying an additional 266,924 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Qualys by 4.0% in 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 during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Qualys by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,156,412 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $153,687,000 after acquiring an additional 75,397 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position 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 valued at $144,133,000 after acquiring an additional 323,324 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Qualys by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 717,381 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $95,344,000 after acquiring an additional 21,649 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In related news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,627 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.17, for a total value of $162,976.59. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 83,211 shares in the company, valued at $8,335,245.87. This represents a 1.92% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.00, for a total value of $4,050,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 196,686 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,552,610. This trade represents a 13.23% decrease in their position. 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 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Stock Performance

Shares of Qualys stock opened at $137.48 on Monday. Qualys, Inc. has a 12 month low of $74.51 and a 12 month high of $167.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.68 and a beta of 0.61. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $125.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $110.44.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81 by $0.14. Qualys had a net margin of 29.41% and a return on equity of 37.15%. The firm had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.63 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.67 EPS. The company’s revenue 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. Analysts predict that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded Qualys from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley set a $96.00 target price on Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Truist Financial upped their target price on Qualys from $85.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their price target on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.80.

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.