Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Trading Down 8.6% on Insider Selling

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)’s share price fell 8.6% during trading on Friday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $121.00 and last traded at $116.8570. 139,369 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 68% from the average session volume of 434,913 shares. The stock had previously closed at $127.81.

Specifically, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 6,799 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.46, for a total transaction of $873,399.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 88,489 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,367,296.94. This trade represents a 7.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 3,414 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.63, for a total value of $463,040.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 88,489 shares in the company, valued at $12,001,763.07. This trade represents a 3.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information.

Analyst Ratings Changes

QLYS has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Northland Securities set a $162.00 price target on Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on Qualys from $140.00 to $134.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Berenberg Bank assumed coverage on Qualys in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $165.00 target price for the company. Robert W. Baird set a $150.00 target price on shares of Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Qualys from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $140.46.

Key Headlines Impacting Qualys

Here are the key news stories impacting Qualys this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 results beat expectations — EPS $1.87 vs. $1.78 est; revenue $175.3M vs. $173.2M and revenue +10.1% YoY, showing steady growth and margin expansion. Qualys Q4 Earnings Surpass Expectations, Revenues Increase Y/Y
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised forward guidance: FY2026 EPS 7.170–7.450 (vs. consensus ~6.59) and Q1 EPS 1.760–1.830 (vs. ~1.57), which signals confidence in underlying business momentum. Qualys Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Financial Results
• Positive Sentiment: Board authorized a $200M increase to the share repurchase program — a capital return that reduces float and supports EPS. Qualys Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Financial Results
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support: Wedbush reaffirmed an Outperform rating and $155 price target, implying substantial upside versus current levels. Wedbush Reaffirms Outperform, $155 PT
• Neutral Sentiment: Earnings call and presentation emphasize strategic initiatives, stronger channel sales and expanding margins — useful for longer-term thesis but less immediately market-moving than headline beats/guidance. Qualys Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
• Negative Sentiment: Despite the beat and upgraded guidance, the stock is down today on heavy volume and sits below its 50- and 200-day moving averages — suggesting short-term profit-taking, broader sector pressure or a market re-rating. (Trading stats and moving averages from market data released with the earnings updates.)

Qualys Trading Down 13.3%

The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $137.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $135.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.37 and a beta of 0.53.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $175.28 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.18 million. Qualys had a net margin of 29.64% and a return on equity of 38.56%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.60 earnings per share. Qualys has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.760-1.830 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 7.170-7.450 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Qualys, Inc. will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qualys

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Qualys by 2.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,401,798 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $582,490,000 after purchasing an additional 123,962 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its stake in shares of Qualys by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,146,289 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $151,688,000 after acquiring an additional 8,425 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Qualys by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,115,717 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $159,402,000 after acquiring an additional 44,000 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in Qualys by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,081,015 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $143,051,000 after acquiring an additional 29,342 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Qualys by 46.9% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,012,100 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $144,133,000 after acquiring an additional 323,324 shares during the period. 99.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.