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

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the fourteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have assigned a hold recommendation, two have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation 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 several research analyst reports. Scotiabank cut their price target on Qualys from $139.00 to $135.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and set a $120.00 target price (down from $130.00) on shares of Qualys in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Qualys from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered 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 report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 6th.

Qualys Price Performance

NASDAQ QLYS opened at $96.44 on Friday. Qualys has a 1 year low of $85.14 and a 1 year high of $155.47. The company has a market capitalization of $3.44 billion, a PE ratio of 17.73 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a fifty day moving average of $111.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $127.86.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $175.28 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $173.18 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.60 earnings per share. The business’s revenue 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, research analysts expect that Qualys will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In related news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 6,799 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.46, for a total value of $873,399.54. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 88,489 shares in the company, valued at $11,367,296.94. The trade was a 7.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,101 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.34, for a total value of $145,706.34. Following the sale, 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 22,309 shares of company stock worth $2,942,450 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qualys

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 5,018 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $667,000 after purchasing an additional 480 shares during the period. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd increased its stake in Qualys by 37,400.0% in the 4th quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 375 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 374 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in Qualys by 31.1% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 9,014 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,198,000 after buying an additional 2,140 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in Qualys during the 4th quarter worth $277,000. Finally, Strive Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Qualys in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Hedge funds and other 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.