Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Raised to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Qualys from $150.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Qualys from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Qualys from $145.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $190.00 price target on shares of Qualys in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Qualys from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One 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, Qualys presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $170.53.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of QLYS opened at $183.48 on Friday. Qualys has a one year low of $74.51 and a one year high of $201.54. The company has a market cap of $6.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.74 and a beta of 0.60. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $135.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $112.01.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.20. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.52% and a net margin of 29.38%.The firm had revenue of $182.18 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $178.57 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.68 EPS. The company’s 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. On average, analysts expect that Qualys will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In other news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 2,384 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.18, for a total transaction of $238,829.12. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 66,301 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,642,034.18. This trade represents a 3.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 30,000 shares of the company’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 value of $4,050,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 196,686 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,552,610. This represents a 13.23% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 76,855 shares of company stock worth $9,706,670. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qualys

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Qualys in the second quarter worth $792,316,000. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in Qualys by 24.1% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,372,587 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $182,417,000 after purchasing an additional 266,924 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted 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 worth $168,380,000 after buying an additional 48,877 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Qualys by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,156,412 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $153,687,000 after buying an additional 75,397 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Qualys by 46.9% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,012,100 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $144,133,000 after buying an additional 323,324 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.