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

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seventeen ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $122.1429.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on QLYS shares. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wedbush decreased 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Qualys from $113.00 to $87.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $100.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of Qualys from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In other Qualys news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,627 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.17, for a total value of $162,976.59. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 83,211 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,335,245.87. This represents a 1.92% decrease in their position. 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, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 2,384 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.18, for a total transaction of $238,829.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 66,301 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,642,034.18. This trade represents a 3.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 19,172 shares of company stock worth $2,124,751. Corporate insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Qualys by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,401,798 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $582,490,000 after purchasing an additional 123,962 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 24.1% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,372,587 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $182,417,000 after acquiring an additional 266,924 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,256,002 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $168,380,000 after acquiring an additional 48,877 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,156,412 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $153,687,000 after acquiring an additional 75,397 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 46.9% during the 2nd 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. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Qualys Stock Up 0.4%

Qualys stock opened at $110.20 on Thursday. Qualys has a 52 week low of $74.51 and a 52 week high of $155.47. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $93.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $111.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.88 billion, a PE ratio of 19.78 and a beta of 0.66.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.81 by $0.14. Qualys had a net margin of 29.41% and a return on equity of 37.15%. The business had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $173.63 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.67 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.440-7.650 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.730-1.800 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Qualys will post 5.47 EPS 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.