Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Shares Up 7% – Should You Buy?

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) rose 7% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $158.73 and last traded at $162.1470. 79,220 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 90% from the average session volume of 760,565 shares. The stock had previously closed at $151.54.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on QLYS. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price target on shares of Qualys from $150.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley set a $96.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Truist Financial cut their target price on Qualys from $120.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Wedbush lowered their price target on Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $133.13.

Qualys Trading Down 2.9%

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $117.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $109.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.60 and a beta of 0.61.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $173.63 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.67 EPS. The company’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, analysts predict that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In other Qualys news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $26,552,610. This represents a 13.23% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 965 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.44, for a total value of $138,419.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 81,215 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,649,479.60. The trade was a 1.17% 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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 73,846 shares of company stock worth $9,239,073. Insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Root Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in Qualys by 206.2% in the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 297 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Strive Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Qualys during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 204.3% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 213 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in shares of 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 bought a new stake in shares of Qualys in the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

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.