Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) Stock Has Consensus Target Price of $173.87

Shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the seventeen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have assigned a hold recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $180.53.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wedbush lowered Qualys from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $175.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, September 10th. DA Davidson increased their price objective on Qualys from $135.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Qualys from $150.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Robert W. Baird set a $160.00 target price on Qualys in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on Qualys from $145.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th.

Qualys Stock Performance

NASDAQ QLYS opened at $198.11 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $182.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $136.86. Qualys has a one year low of $74.51 and a one year high of $206.25. The firm has a market cap of $6.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.69 and a beta of 0.60.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $182.18 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $178.57 million. Qualys had a net margin of 29.38% and a return on equity of 37.52%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.68 earnings per share. 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 analysts predict that Qualys will post 5.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Sumedh Thakar sold 3,200 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.05, for a total value of $544,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 180,338 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,666,476.90. This trade represents a 1.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing 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, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,627 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.04, for a total value of $248,996.08. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 75,743 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,591,708.72. This represents a 2.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 7,941 shares of company stock worth $1,326,739 over the last 90 days. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in QLYS. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Qualys during the second quarter worth approximately $792,316,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in Qualys in the second quarter valued at approximately $197,624,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Qualys by 127.0% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 832,796 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $73,161,000 after purchasing an additional 465,952 shares during the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. increased its stake in Qualys by 402.2% in the fourth quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 363,593 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $48,322,000 after purchasing an additional 291,192 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Qualys in the 2nd quarter valued at $39,044,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Company Profile

Qualys, Inc provides cloud-based information technology, security and compliance solutions for organizations worldwide. Its platform is designed to help businesses identify, assess and manage security vulnerabilities across their networks, endpoints, cloud environments and web applications.

The company’s offerings include vulnerability management, asset inventory, security and compliance assessment, web application security, endpoint detection and response, and cloud security capabilities.