Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Upgraded to “Neutral” at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) was upgraded by investment analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report issued on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $139.00 price target on the software maker’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s target price indicates a potential upside of 8.32% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on QLYS. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on Qualys from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Truist Financial reduced their price target on Qualys from $120.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen cut Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $100.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Qualys has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $125.86.

Qualys Stock Up 4.1%

Qualys stock opened at $128.32 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $101.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $109.09. Qualys has a 12 month low of $74.51 and a 12 month high of $155.47. The stock has a market cap of $4.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.04 and a beta of 0.65.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81 by $0.14. Qualys had a net margin of 29.41% and a return on equity of 37.15%. The business had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.63 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.67 earnings per share. Qualys’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, equities research analysts expect that Qualys will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Wendy Pfeiffer sold 500 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction on Monday, June 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.55, for a total value of $55,275.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 12,710 shares in the company, valued at $1,405,090.50. This trade represents a 3.79% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 865 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction on Monday, June 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.44, for a total transaction of $94,665.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 64,571 shares in the company, valued at $7,066,650.24. This trade represents a 1.32% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 31,881 shares of company stock valued at $3,628,154 in the last three months. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qualys

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in QLYS. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Qualys in the fourth quarter worth about $78,591,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Qualys by 127.0% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 832,796 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $73,161,000 after purchasing an additional 465,952 shares during the period. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new stake in Qualys during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $45,854,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Qualys by 46.9% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,012,100 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $144,133,000 after buying an additional 323,324 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clark Capital Management Group Inc. grew its holdings in Qualys by 402.2% in the 4th quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 363,593 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $48,322,000 after buying an additional 291,192 shares during the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.