Qualys (QLYS) & Its Peers Head-To-Head Contrast

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) is one of 959 public companies in the “Software” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Qualys to related companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, risk, earnings, valuation, profitability, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Qualys and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Qualys	$669.12 million	$198.32 million	28.78
Qualys Competitors	$1.79 billion	$382.69 million	112.34

Qualys’ peers have higher revenue and earnings than Qualys. Qualys is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Volatility and Risk

Qualys has a beta of 0.54, meaning that its stock price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Qualys’ peers have a beta of 1.35, meaning that their average stock price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Qualys and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Qualys	1	12	4	1	2.28
Qualys Competitors	5852	21632	45028	1503	2.57

Qualys presently has a consensus target price of $195.00, indicating a potential upside of 12.76%. As a group, “Software” companies have a potential upside of 28.49%. Given Qualys’ peers stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Qualys has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

99.3% of Qualys shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.5% of shares of all “Software” companies are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Qualys shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 19.9% of shares of all “Software” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Qualys and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Qualys	29.59%	37.09%	19.51%
Qualys Competitors	-596.15%	26.13%	-8.98%

Summary

Qualys peers beat Qualys on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

About Qualys

Qualys, Inc. provides cloud-based security and compliance software to help organizations identify and manage cybersecurity risks. Its platform brings together information about an organization’s IT assets and security posture to support vulnerability management, threat detection, and compliance activities. Qualys offers products and services for vulnerability assessment and remediation, cloud security, endpoint protection, web application security, and policy compliance. Its solutions are designed to help customers monitor systems across cloud environments, on-premises infrastructure, and other connected assets.