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

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the fourteen analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $140.4615.

QLYS has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on Qualys from $140.00 to $134.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Qualys from $139.00 to $135.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 6th. DA Davidson reduced their target price on Qualys from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating and set a $117.00 target price on shares of Qualys in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group set a $150.00 price target on shares of Qualys in a research note on Friday, February 6th.

Qualys Stock Down 0.2%

NASDAQ QLYS opened at $96.44 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.73 and a beta of 0.62. Qualys has a 52-week low of $85.14 and a 52-week high of $155.47. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $111.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $127.86.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.65% and a net margin of 29.64%.The company had revenue of $175.28 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $173.18 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.60 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Qualys has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.760-1.830 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 7.170-7.450 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Qualys will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Qualys

In related news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.76, for a total value of $668,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 247,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,145,728. This trade represents a 1.98% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,101 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.34, for a total value of $145,706.34. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 68,598 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,078,259.32. This represents a 1.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 22,309 shares of company stock valued at $2,942,450 in the last quarter. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in QLYS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,401,798 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $582,490,000 after buying an additional 123,962 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in Qualys by 24.1% in 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 holdings in 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 in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in Qualys by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,156,412 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $153,687,000 after acquiring an additional 75,397 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its position in Qualys by 0.7% during the third quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,146,289 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $151,688,000 after acquiring an additional 8,425 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

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.