Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest
by Michael Walen · The Markets DailyQualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS – Get Free Report) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 3,987,298 shares, a growth of 30.9% from the March 15th total of 3,046,355 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 732,234 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.4 days. Approximately 11.3% of the company’s stock are short sold.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other Qualys news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 6,799 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 88,489 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,367,296.94. This represents a 7.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,101 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.34, for a total transaction of $145,706.34. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 68,598 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,078,259.32. This represents a 1.58% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 11,479 shares of company stock worth $1,498,671. 0.88% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qualys
Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Qualys by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 1,985 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $264,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its stake in Qualys by 1.8% in the third quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 5,027 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $665,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its stake in Qualys by 0.7% in the third quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 12,868 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,703,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in Qualys by 4.6% in the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,038 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $291,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd grew its stake in Qualys by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,178 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $156,000 after buying an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Qualys Stock Performance
NASDAQ:QLYS traded up $1.95 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $85.17. 821,352 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 721,196. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.66 and a beta of 0.62. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $96.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.07. Qualys has a fifty-two week low of $74.51 and a fifty-two week high of $155.47.
Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $175.28 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $173.18 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.65% and a net margin of 29.64%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.60 EPS. Qualys has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.760-1.830 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 7.170-7.450 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Qualys will post 3.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Qualys in a report on Monday, December 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on Qualys from $140.00 to $134.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $117.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. DA Davidson reduced their target price on Qualys from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $155.00 price target on shares of Qualys in a research note on Friday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $140.46.
Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Qualys
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.