Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Stock Price Up 7.8% - Time to Buy?

Key Points

• Qualys shares jumped 7.8% to about $162 after trading as high as $162.92, though volume was 86% below the average session level.
• Analysts remain cautious: Qualys has a consensus “Hold” rating and an average price target of $173.87, with most analysts maintaining hold recommendations.
• The company recently beat quarterly expectations, reporting $1.98 in EPS versus $1.78 expected and $182.18 million in revenue, up 11.1% year over year; however, insiders have sold $7.6 million of stock over the past three months.

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) shares shot up 7.8% on Monday . The company traded as high as $162.92 and last traded at $162.0430. 108,199 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 752,195 shares. The stock had previously closed at $150.28.

Analyst Ratings Changes

QLYS has been the subject of several analyst reports. Northland Securities set a $208.00 price objective on Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. DA Davidson lifted their target price on Qualys from $135.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Qualys from $145.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Robert W. Baird set a $160.00 price target on Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Qualys from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Monday, August 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Qualys has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $173.87.

Qualys Stock Up 14.6%

The stock has a market capitalization of $5.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.85 and a beta of 0.62. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $166.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $122.73.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.20. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.52% and a net margin of 29.38%.The company had revenue of $182.18 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $178.57 million. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.68 EPS. 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 forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.85 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Qualys

In other Qualys news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.00, for a total value of $155,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 63,571 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,853,505. This represents a 1.55% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Sumedh Thakar sold 30,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.00, for a total transaction of $4,050,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 196,686 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $26,552,610. This trade represents a 13.23% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 57,205 shares of company stock valued at $7,592,800 in the last three months. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in QLYS. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Qualys in the second quarter valued at $792,316,000. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Qualys by 13,255.9% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 5,651,801 shares of the software maker's stock worth $777,066,000 after acquiring an additional 5,609,484 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of Qualys during the 2nd quarter worth $197,624,000. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Qualys by 24.1% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,372,587 shares of the software maker's stock worth $182,417,000 after acquiring an additional 266,924 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Qualys by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,256,002 shares of the software maker's stock worth $168,380,000 after acquiring an additional 48,877 shares during the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Qualys Company Profile

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

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

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