Qualys, Inc. $QLYS Stock: Willis Investment Counsel Raises Holdings

Willis Investment Counsel lifted its holdings in Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) by 11.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 63,845 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,689 shares during the quarter. Willis Investment Counsel’s holdings in Qualys were worth $11,952,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sei Investments Co. increased its holdings in shares of Qualys by 28.8% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 47,295 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,155,000 after purchasing an additional 10,569 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its position in Qualys by 306.4% during the first quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 36,253 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,185,000 after acquiring an additional 27,333 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its holdings in Qualys by 63.5% during the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 17,251 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,372,000 after purchasing an additional 6,700 shares in the last quarter. Park State Asset Management purchased a new position in Qualys during the second quarter valued at $5,942,000. Finally, Chase Investment Counsel Corp purchased a new position in Qualys during the second quarter valued at $2,749,000. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on QLYS. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Qualys from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Northland Securities set a $208.00 target price on Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Qualys from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 13th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Qualys from $100.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their price target on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $183.62.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In other Qualys news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,627 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.04, for a total value of $248,996.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 75,743 shares in the company, valued at $11,591,708.72. The trade was a 2.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Sumedh Thakar sold 3,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.05, for a total value of $544,160.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 180,338 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,666,476.90. The trade was a 1.74% 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. Insiders sold 9,759 shares of company stock valued at $1,717,290 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ QLYS traded up $0.56 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $190.64. The stock had a trading volume of 149,585 shares, compared to its average volume of 748,392. Qualys, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $74.51 and a fifty-two week high of $206.25. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $182.94 and its 200-day moving average price is $139.68. The company has a market cap of $6.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.97 and a beta of 0.60.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 earnings per share (EPS) 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $178.57 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.68 EPS. Qualys’s 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. Analysts forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Qualys

Qualys, Inc is a cloud-based cybersecurity company that helps organizations identify, assess and manage security risks across information technology environments. Its platform is designed to provide visibility into assets, vulnerabilities, configurations and compliance requirements across on-premises infrastructure, endpoints, networks, applications and cloud environments.

The company’s offerings include vulnerability management, detection and response, policy compliance, asset inventory, web application security, endpoint security and cloud security capabilities.