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

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Sunday, Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on QLYS. Robert W. Baird set a $160.00 price target on shares of Qualys in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $100.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. DA Davidson increased their target price on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Qualys from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 13th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $183.62.

Qualys Trading Up 3.9%

NASDAQ:QLYS opened at $225.15 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $185.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $133.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.11 and a beta of 0.60. Qualys has a 1-year low of $74.51 and a 1-year high of $226.51.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $178.57 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.68 EPS. The business’s quarterly 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. Equities analysts forecast that Qualys will post 5.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In other Qualys news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 881 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.52, for a total value of $166,967.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 57,807 shares in the company, valued at $10,955,582.64. The trade was a 1.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available 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 that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.04, for a total transaction of $248,996.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 75,743 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 10,640 shares of company stock valued at $1,884,257. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qualys

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of QLYS. Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in shares of Qualys by 28.8% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 47,295 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,155,000 after buying an additional 10,569 shares during the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Qualys by 306.4% during the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 36,253 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,185,000 after acquiring an additional 27,333 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its stake in shares of Qualys by 63.5% during the 2nd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 17,251 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,372,000 after acquiring an additional 6,700 shares in the last quarter. Park State Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Qualys during the 2nd quarter valued at about $5,942,000. Finally, Chase Investment Counsel Corp acquired a new position in shares of Qualys during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,749,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Company Profile

Qualys, Inc is a cloud-based cybersecurity company that helps organizations identify, assess and manage security risks across information technology environments. Its platform is designed to provide visibility into assets, vulnerabilities, configurations and compliance requirements across on-premises infrastructure, endpoints, networks, applications and cloud environments.

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