First Trust Advisors LP Sells 10,054 Shares of Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

First Trust Advisors LP lowered its holdings in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,105,663 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 10,054 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned 3.08% of Qualys worth $146,312,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Qualys during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in Qualys by 451.0% in the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 270 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Qualys in the third quarter worth about $55,000. Reyes Financial Architecture Inc. bought a new stake in Qualys during the third quarter worth approximately $62,000. Finally, Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Qualys during the second quarter worth approximately $73,000. 99.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on Qualys from $140.00 to $134.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 6th. Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and issued a $120.00 price target (down from $130.00) on shares of Qualys in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $139.00 to $135.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $140.46.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:QLYS opened at $98.66 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.52 billion, a PE ratio of 18.14 and a beta of 0.63. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $118.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $130.40. Qualys, Inc. has a 1 year low of $85.14 and a 1 year high of $155.47.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.65% and a net margin of 29.64%.The firm had revenue of $175.28 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.18 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.60 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. Qualys has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.760-1.830 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 7.170-7.450 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,101 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.34, for a total transaction of $145,706.34. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 68,598 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,078,259.32. This trade represents a 1.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.76, for a total transaction of $668,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 247,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,145,728. This represents a 1.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 30,744 shares of company stock worth $4,186,464 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Company Profile

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.