Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) has received an average rating of “Hold” from the seventeen research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twelve have given a hold recommendation, two have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $141.00.

Several research analysts have recently commented on QLYS shares. Wedbush increased their price target on shares of Qualys from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Qualys to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Qualys from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. DA Davidson increased their price target on shares of Qualys from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Qualys from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In related news, Director John A. Zangardi sold 3,103 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.94, for a total transaction of $418,718.82. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 4,071 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $549,340.74. This represents a 43.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.49, for a total transaction of $1,126,165.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 205,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,286,447.99. This represents a 3.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 39,565 shares of company stock worth $5,311,374 in the last quarter. 0.88% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Boston Trust Walden Corp boosted its holdings in Qualys by 8.4% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,137,864 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $162,567,000 after purchasing an additional 88,051 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Qualys by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,115,717 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $159,402,000 after purchasing an additional 44,000 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Qualys by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,051,673 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $150,253,000 after purchasing an additional 65,924 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 323,324 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its holdings in Qualys by 92.2% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 643,238 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $81,003,000 after purchasing an additional 308,635 shares during the period. 99.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Qualys Stock Performance

Qualys stock opened at $131.37 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.74 billion, a PE ratio of 26.22 and a beta of 0.62. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $133.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $133.51. Qualys has a twelve month low of $112.61 and a twelve month high of $170.00.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The software maker reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.47 by $0.21. Qualys had a net margin of 29.04% and a return on equity of 37.19%. The firm had revenue of $164.06 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $161.25 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.52 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Qualys has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.200-6.5 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 1.500-1.6 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Qualys will post 3.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Qualys Company Profile

Qualys, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud-based platform delivering information technology (IT), security, and compliance solutions in the United States and internationally. It offers Qualys Cloud Apps, which include Cybersecurity Asset Management and External Attack Surface Management; Vulnerability Management, Detection and Response; Web Application Scanning; Patch Management; Custom Assessment and Remediation; Multi-Vector Endpoint Detection and Response; Context Extended Detection and Response; Policy Compliance; File Integrity Monitoring; and Qualys TotalCloud, as well as Cloud Workload Protection, Cloud Detection and Response, Cloud Security Posture Management, Infrastructure as Code, and Container Security.