Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Sets New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday. The company traded as high as $207.70 and last traded at $207.1060, with a volume of 377,310 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $196.70.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

QLYS has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Qualys from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Zacks Research raised Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Qualys from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Qualys from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 13th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group set a $190.00 target price on Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $183.62.

Qualys Price Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $183.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $141.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.20 billion, a PE ratio of 36.02 and a beta of 0.60.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.20. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.52% and a net margin of 29.38%. The company had revenue of $182.18 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $178.57 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.68 EPS. Qualys’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. On average, research analysts expect that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Qualys news, CEO Sumedh Thakar sold 3,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.05, for a total transaction of $544,160.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 180,338 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,666,476.90. This represents a 1.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 881 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.52, for a total value of $166,967.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 57,807 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,955,582.64. This trade represents a 1.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 10,640 shares of company stock worth $1,884,257 in the last ninety days. 0.72% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of QLYS. Kilter Group LLC purchased a new position in Qualys in the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Continuum Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Qualys during the second quarter worth $33,000. Root Financial Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Qualys by 206.2% in the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 297 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of Qualys in the second quarter valued at about $51,000. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd raised its position in shares of Qualys by 37,400.0% in the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 375 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 374 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Company Profile

Qualys, Inc is a cloud-based cybersecurity company that helps organizations identify, assess and manage security risks across information technology environments. Its platform is designed to provide visibility into assets, vulnerabilities, configurations and compliance requirements across on-premises infrastructure, endpoints, networks, applications and cloud environments.

The company’s offerings include vulnerability management, detection and response, policy compliance, asset inventory, web application security, endpoint security and cloud security capabilities.