Handelsbanken Fonder AB Acquires 6,700 Shares of Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 63.5% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 17,251 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,700 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Qualys were worth $2,372,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of QLYS. Strive Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Qualys during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake in shares of Qualys by 204.3% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 213 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 143 shares during the period. Root Financial Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Employees Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in Qualys during the fourth quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd grew its position in Qualys by 37,400.0% during the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 375 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 374 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:QLYS opened at $186.05 on Monday. Qualys, Inc. has a 1 year low of $74.51 and a 1 year high of $201.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.19 and a beta of 0.60. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $143.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $114.03.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.20. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.52% and a net margin of 29.38%.The firm had revenue of $182.18 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $178.57 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.68 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.740-7.880 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.910-1.980 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Qualys

In other news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 2,384 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.18, for a total value of $238,829.12. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 66,301 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,642,034.18. This trade represents a 3.47% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through 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 company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.00, for a total transaction of $4,050,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 196,686 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,552,610. This represents a 13.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 76,855 shares of company stock valued at $9,706,670. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. William Blair cut Qualys from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Qualys from $139.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Zacks Research upgraded Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Qualys from $100.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on Qualys from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $170.53.

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.