Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Upgraded by Zacks Research to “Strong-Buy” Rating

Zacks Research upgraded shares of Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Tuesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on QLYS. Truist Financial increased their price target on Qualys from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Robert W. Baird set a $160.00 price objective on Qualys in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Qualys from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Qualys from $145.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, DA Davidson raised their target price on Qualys from $135.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned 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, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $170.53.

Qualys Stock Performance

QLYS stock opened at $187.15 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $140.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $113.18. Qualys has a 52-week low of $74.51 and a 52-week high of $201.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.38 and a beta of 0.60.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 company’s revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $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. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Qualys will post 5.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Wendy Pfeiffer sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.19, for a total transaction of $79,095.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 12,210 shares in the company, valued at $1,931,499.90. The trade was a 3.93% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 882 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.17, for a total transaction of $139,505.94. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 62,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,915,519.13. This trade represents a 1.39% 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 have sold a total of 76,855 shares of company stock worth $9,706,670 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in QLYS. Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Qualys in the 2nd quarter worth $527,000. Ieq Capital LLC bought a new stake in Qualys during the second quarter valued at about $1,021,000. Heron Bay Capital Management bought a new stake in Qualys during the second quarter valued at about $4,401,000. Expressive Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Qualys in the second quarter valued at about $832,000. Finally, Paralel Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Qualys in the second quarter valued at about $3,615,000. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.