Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $190.00 price target on Qualys in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Wedbush cut shares of Qualys from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $175.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday. Zacks Research raised shares of Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on Qualys from $145.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Qualys from $100.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $173.87.

Qualys Trading Up 15.1%

Shares of QLYS opened at $172.91 on Friday. Qualys has a twelve month low of $74.51 and a twelve month high of $201.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.92 and a beta of 0.62. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $166.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $123.33.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $178.57 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.68 earnings per share. The firm’s 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. Sell-side analysts predict that Qualys will post 5.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In related news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,627 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.04, for a total value of $248,996.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 75,743 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,591,708.72. This trade represents a 2.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Wendy Pfeiffer sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.19, for a total value of $79,095.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 12,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 90 days, insiders have sold 57,205 shares of company stock worth $7,592,800. Company insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its holdings in Qualys by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 1,985 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $264,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 98 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Qualys by 8.9% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,231 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $164,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Qualys by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 5,945 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $790,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NorthRock Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Qualys by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC now owns 13,501 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,856,000 after buying an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

About Qualys

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

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