Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) Given Average Rating of "Hold" by Brokerages

Key Points

• Qualys has a consensus analyst rating of “Hold.” Among 17 covering brokerages, three rate it a sell, 11 a hold, two a buy, and one a strong buy, with an average 12-month price target of about $122.14.
• Recent analyst sentiment has been mixed to cautious. Several firms lowered price targets, including Wedbush, Truist Financial, and JPMorgan, while Weiss Ratings downgraded the stock to sell; RBC was one of the few to raise its target.
• Qualys reported better-than-expected quarterly results. The company posted EPS of $1.95 versus estimates of $1.81 and revenue of $175.64 million, while also issuing FY2026 and Q2 2026 guidance.

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the seventeen research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have given a hold recommendation, two have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $122.1429.

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on QLYS. Wedbush decreased their price objective on Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on Qualys from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings cut Qualys from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Qualys from $120.00 to $85.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Qualys from $113.00 to $87.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 6th.

Qualys Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:QLYS opened at $123.27 on Monday. The business's 50-day moving average is $100.46 and its 200 day moving average is $109.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.13 and a beta of 0.65. Qualys has a 1 year low of $74.51 and a 1 year high of $155.47.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.81 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.63 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.15% and a net margin of 29.41%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.67 EPS. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.440-7.650 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.730-1.800 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Qualys will post 5.47 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Qualys news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 13,200 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.73, for a total value of $1,514,436.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 249,886 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $28,669,420.78. The trade was a 5.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 2,384 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.18, for a total transaction of $238,829.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 66,301 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,642,034.18. The trade was a 3.47% decrease in their position. 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 have sold 21,881 shares of company stock valued at $2,423,354 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qualys

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Root Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Qualys by 206.2% during the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 297 shares of the software maker's stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Strive Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Qualys during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake in Qualys by 204.3% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 213 shares of the software maker's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in Qualys by 86.8% in the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 284 shares of the software maker's stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 132 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Employees Retirement System of Texas acquired a new position in shares of Qualys during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Qualys Company Profile

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.

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