Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the seventeen research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $170.5333.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Qualys from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Qualys from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Wedbush cut their price objective on shares of Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 7th.

Insider Transactions at Qualys

In related news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was 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 approximately $26,552,610. This trade represents a 13.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Wendy Pfeiffer sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.19, for a total transaction of $79,095.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 12,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,931,499.90. This represents a 3.93% 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 ninety days, insiders have sold 72,844 shares of company stock valued at $9,304,865. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Qualys during the second quarter valued at approximately $792,316,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Qualys in the second quarter valued at $197,624,000. First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in Qualys by 24.1% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,372,587 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $182,417,000 after buying an additional 266,924 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Qualys by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,256,002 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $168,380,000 after acquiring an additional 48,877 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Qualys by 46.9% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,012,100 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $144,133,000 after acquiring an additional 323,324 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of QLYS stock opened at $183.31 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $6.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.71 and a beta of 0.60. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $145.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $114.39. Qualys has a one year low of $74.51 and a one 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 the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.20. Qualys had a net margin of 29.38% and a return on equity of 37.52%. The firm had revenue of $182.18 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $178.57 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.68 EPS. The firm’s quarterly 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. Equities research analysts anticipate that Qualys will post 5.85 EPS for the current 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.