Traders Buy High Volume of Qualys Call Options (NASDAQ:QLYS)

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) saw some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors acquired 3,887 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 3,222% compared to the typical volume of 117 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

QLYS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Qualys from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on shares of Qualys from $158.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Qualys from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $117.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $143.57.

Insider Transactions at Qualys

In other Qualys news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 4,753 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.77, for a total transaction of $621,549.81. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 94,672 shares in the company, valued at $12,380,257.44. This trade represents a 4.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 5,000 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.76, for a total value of $668,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 247,800 shares in the company, valued at $33,145,728. This represents a 1.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 33,113 shares of company stock valued at $4,734,903. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in QLYS. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Qualys during the third quarter worth about $29,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 451.0% during the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 270 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in shares of Qualys by 86.8% in the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 284 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 132 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. bought a new stake in Qualys in the second quarter worth about $44,000. Finally, Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Qualys in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $55,000. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Qualys Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:QLYS traded up $0.70 on Wednesday, reaching $132.72. 41,685 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 351,352. The business’s 50-day moving average is $140.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $136.07. Qualys has a fifty-two week low of $112.61 and a fifty-two week high of $155.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.72 and a beta of 0.50.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The software maker reported $1.86 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.56 by $0.30. The business had revenue of $169.88 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $166.30 million. Qualys had a net margin of 28.96% and a return on equity of 37.40%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.56 EPS. Qualys has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.930-7.000 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.730-1.800 EPS. Analysts predict that Qualys will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.