Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Saturday morning.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $190.00 price target on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings raised Qualys from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Qualys from $145.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Wedbush decreased their target price on Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $170.53.

Qualys Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of QLYS stock opened at $185.80 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.15 and a beta of 0.60. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $137.41 and a 200 day moving average of $112.39. Qualys has a 52 week low of $74.51 and a 52 week high of $201.54.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.20. Qualys had a net margin of 29.38% and a return on equity of 37.52%. The business had revenue of $182.18 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $178.57 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.68 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.740-7.880 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.910-1.980 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Qualys will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.00, for a total transaction of $4,050,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 196,686 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,552,610. This trade represents a 13.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 2,384 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,642,034.18. The trade was 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 76,855 shares of company stock valued at $9,706,670. Insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in shares of Qualys by 28.8% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 47,295 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,155,000 after purchasing an additional 10,569 shares during the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in Qualys by 306.4% in the first quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 36,253 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,185,000 after purchasing an additional 27,333 shares during the last quarter. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. bought a new stake in Qualys in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,064,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in Qualys by 118.6% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 37,714 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,313,000 after purchasing an additional 20,462 shares during the period. Finally, Comerica Bank raised its stake in Qualys by 100.6% during the 4th quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 22,710 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,018,000 after buying an additional 11,391 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

About Qualys

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.