Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Rating Lowered to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded Qualys from a "buy" to a "hold," and the analyst consensus on the stock remains a Hold with an average price target of $137.77.
• Qualys beat quarterly expectations with $1.87 EPS (vs. $1.78 est.) and $175.3M revenue (+10.1% YoY) and set Q1 2026 guidance of $1.760–1.830 EPS and FY2026 guidance of $7.170–7.450 EPS.
• Shares opened at $88.53 (market cap ~$3.12B) — within a 12-month range of $74.51–$155.47 — and CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 6,799 shares in February, modestly reducing insider ownership.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on QLYS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Qualys from $117.00 to $113.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 6th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Qualys from $139.00 to $135.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 6th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Qualys from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $150.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a report on Friday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $137.77.

Qualys Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of QLYS opened at $88.53 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.27 and a beta of 0.58. Qualys has a 12-month low of $74.51 and a 12-month high of $155.47. The company's 50-day moving average price is $90.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $118.42.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $175.28 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $173.18 million. Qualys had a net margin of 29.64% and a return on equity of 37.65%. Qualys's revenue was up 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.60 EPS. Qualys has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.760-1.830 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 7.170-7.450 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Qualys will post 5.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Qualys

In other Qualys news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 6,799 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.46, for a total transaction of $873,399.54. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 88,489 shares in the company, valued at $11,367,296.94. This represents a 7.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold 10,378 shares of company stock worth $1,352,964 in the last 90 days. 0.88% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Strive Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Qualys during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in Qualys by 204.3% during the fourth 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 during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Qualys during the third quarter worth about $29,000. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in shares of Qualys by 451.0% during the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 270 shares of the software maker's stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP grew its position in shares of Qualys by 86.8% during the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 284 shares of the software maker's stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 132 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Qualys

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.