Lazard Asset Management LLC Grows Position in Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 118.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 37,714 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 20,462 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Qualys were worth $3,313,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Strive Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Qualys in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position in Qualys by 204.3% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 213 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC increased its stake in Qualys by 206.2% in the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 297 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Employees Retirement System of Texas purchased a new stake in shares of Qualys in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Qualys by 127.0% in the fourth quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 345 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on QLYS shares. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price target on Qualys from $150.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. William Blair downgraded Qualys from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Truist Financial boosted 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. Wedbush decreased their price target on Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded shares of Qualys from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $100.00 to $190.00 in a research report on Monday, July 6th. One research 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 given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Qualys currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $142.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Qualys news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,627 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 83,211 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,335,245.87. This represents a 1.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 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 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 completion of the sale, 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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 75,228 shares of company stock worth $9,457,674. Insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Trading Up 2.1%

Shares of QLYS opened at $144.75 on Friday. Qualys, Inc. has a twelve month low of $74.51 and a twelve month high of $167.86. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $128.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $110.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.10 billion, a PE ratio of 25.99 and a beta of 0.61.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.81 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $173.63 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.15% and a net margin of 29.41%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.67 EPS. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.440-7.650 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.730-1.800 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current year.

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.