Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Issues Earnings Results

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) issued its earnings results on Tuesday. The software maker reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81 by $0.14, FiscalAI reports. Qualys had a net margin of 29.64% and a return on equity of 37.65%. The business had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.66 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.67 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Qualys updated its FY 2026 guidance to 7.440-7.650 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance to 1.730-1.800 EPS.

Here are the key takeaways from Qualys’ conference call:

• Qualys announced Agent Val is generally available and positioned its ETM (Enterprise TruRisk Management) platform as an AI-native ROC that combines exploit validation, autonomous remediation (TruRisk Eliminate / Agent Sarah) and an AI patch‑reliability score, which management says differentiates the company in a rising frontier‑AI threat environment.
• Financially the quarter was solid — revenue grew 10% to $175.6 million, adjusted EBITDA margin was 47%, EPS was $1.95, free cash flow was $93.6 million, the company repurchased $53.9 million of stock, and FY2026 revenue and EPS guidance were raised slightly to $721–727M and $7.44–7.65.
• Early commercial traction for ETM is visible — the ETM/CSAM cohort’s net dollar expansion rate was 107% and ETM/CSAM made up ~11% of LTM bookings, while channel contribution rose to 52% of revenue — but management emphasizes ETM adoption is still in early stages.
• Management cautioned on macro and adoption risks — guidance assumes no material change in overall NRR, sales cycles and higher sales & marketing spend may delay visible uplift from ETM, leaving near‑term NRR and new‑logo momentum potentially muted.

Qualys Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ QLYS traded down $0.35 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $92.14. The company had a trading volume of 816,322 shares, compared to its average volume of 971,907. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $89.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $118.04. The stock has a market cap of $3.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.94 and a beta of 0.58. Qualys has a 1 year low of $74.51 and a 1 year high of $155.47.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on QLYS shares. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $140.00 to $134.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $117.00 to $113.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 6th. William Blair downgraded shares of Qualys from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Qualys from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Friday, April 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $137.77.

Qualys News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Qualys this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q1 results beat estimates — EPS $1.95 vs. $1.81 expected; revenue $175.6M vs. $173.7M expected and revenue +9.8% YoY. Strong margins (net margin ~29.6%) and ROE (~37.7%) underscore profitability. Qualys (QLYS) Q1 Earnings and Revenues Surpass Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised FY2026 and Q2 guidance above consensus: FY EPS 7.440–7.650 (consensus ~6.98) and revenue $721–727M; Q2 EPS 1.730–1.800 (consensus ~1.69) and revenue ~$177.5–179.5M — a clear signal of confidence in the year. Qualys Announces First Quarter 2026 Financial Results
• Positive Sentiment: New commercial partnership with Converge to link cyber risk posture to lower insurance premiums could expand product appeal and create a differentiated go-to-market angle for security and risk customers. Qualys and Converge Launch Joint Offering
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor materials and conference call are available for deeper detail on bookings, ARR/HQ metrics and margin cadence — useful for assessing sustainability of guidance. Listen to Conference Call / View Materials
• Negative Sentiment: Despite upside, shares are trading lower — possible reasons include profit-taking after prior moves, lingering technical resistance (stock remains below its 200‑day MA) and broad-market/sector rotation; some investors may view mid-single‑digit revenue growth as modest versus high-growth software peers. Qualys Stock Summary

Insider Activity

In other Qualys news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 6,799 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.46, for a total value of $873,399.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 88,489 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,367,296.94. This trade represents a 7.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 6,964 shares of company stock valued at $889,923 over the last three months. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Qualys by 1.8% in the third quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 5,027 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $665,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 4.6% in the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,038 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $291,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 3.7% in the third quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 3,239 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $429,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 4.9% in the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,818 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $403,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares during the period. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 204.3% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 213 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares during the period. 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.