Legal & General Group Plc Acquires Shares of 1,437,373 Qualys, Inc. $QLYS

Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 1,437,373 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $197,624,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new position in Qualys during the second quarter worth approximately $4,597,000. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Qualys in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,759,000. Winmill & CO. Inc. acquired a new position in Qualys during the second quarter worth $12,187,000. Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Qualys during the 2nd quarter valued at about $527,000. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Qualys in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,021,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Stock Performance

NASDAQ:QLYS opened at $176.67 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $154.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $116.88. The stock has a market cap of $6.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.57 and a beta of 0.60. Qualys, Inc. has a 1 year low of $74.51 and a 1 year high of $201.54.

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

Insider Activity at Qualys

In other news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.00, for a total value of $155,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 63,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,853,505. This represents a 1.55% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible 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 stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.00, for a total transaction of $4,050,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 196,686 shares in the company, valued at $26,552,610. This trade 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. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 72,845 shares of company stock worth $9,377,536. Corporate insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on QLYS shares. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Qualys from $100.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Zacks Research upgraded Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Wedbush cut their price target on Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Scotiabank increased their price target on Qualys from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Qualys from $139.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Qualys presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $170.53.

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.