Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) versus SentinelOne (NYSE:S) Critical Review

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) and SentinelOne (NYSE:S) are both mid-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, valuation, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Qualys and SentinelOne, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Qualys	3	12	2	0	1.94
SentinelOne	0	10	17	3	2.77

Qualys presently has a consensus price target of $137.50, suggesting a potential downside of 1.30%. SentinelOne has a consensus price target of $24.80, suggesting a potential upside of 37.55%. Given SentinelOne’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe SentinelOne is more favorable than Qualys.

Profitability

This table compares Qualys and SentinelOne’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Qualys	29.19%	38.05%	18.77%
SentinelOne	-49.36%	-15.95%	-10.89%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Qualys and SentinelOne”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Qualys	$607.57 million	8.33	$173.68 million	$4.89	28.49
SentinelOne	$821.46 million	7.30	-$288.44 million	($1.32)	-13.66

Qualys has higher earnings, but lower revenue than SentinelOne. SentinelOne is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Qualys, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Qualys has a beta of 0.62, meaning that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SentinelOne has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

99.3% of Qualys shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.9% of SentinelOne shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Qualys shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.3% of SentinelOne shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Qualys beats SentinelOne on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Qualys

Qualys, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud-based platform delivering information technology (IT), security, and compliance solutions in the United States and internationally. It offers Qualys Cloud Apps, which include Cybersecurity Asset Management and External Attack Surface Management; Vulnerability Management, Detection and Response; Web Application Scanning; Patch Management; Custom Assessment and Remediation; Multi-Vector Endpoint Detection and Response; Context Extended Detection and Response; Policy Compliance; File Integrity Monitoring; and Qualys TotalCloud, as well as Cloud Workload Protection, Cloud Detection and Response, Cloud Security Posture Management, Infrastructure as Code, and Container Security. The company's integrated suite of IT, security, and compliance solutions delivered on its Qualys' Enterprise TruRisk Platform enables customers to identify and manage IT assets; collect and analyze IT security data; discover and prioritize vulnerabilities; quantify cyber risk exposure; recommend and implement remediation actions; and verify the implementation of such actions. It also provides asset tagging and management, reporting and dashboards, questionnaires and collaboration, remediation and workflow, big data correlation and analytics engine, and alerts and notifications that enable clients to detect vulnerabilities, and measure and remediate cyber risk. The company offers its solutions to enterprises, government entities, and small and medium-sized businesses in various industries, including education, financial services, government, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, media, retail, technology, and utilities through its sales teams, as well as through its network of channel partners, such as security consulting organizations, managed service providers, resellers, cloud providers, and consulting firms. Qualys, Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Foster City, California.

About SentinelOne

SentinelOne, Inc. operates as a cybersecurity provider in the United States and internationally. Its Singularity Platform delivers an artificial intelligence-powered autonomous threat prevention, detection, and response capabilities across an organization's endpoints, cloud workloads, and identify credentials, which enables seamless and autonomous protection against a spectrum of cyber threats. In addition, it offers endpoint protection, endpoint detection and response, cloud and identity security, attack surface management, mobile endpoint security, xdr power tools, watchtower, and vigilance MDR. The company was formerly known as Sentinel Labs, Inc. and changed its name to SentinelOne, Inc. in March 2021. SentinelOne, Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.