Head-To-Head Survey: Qualys (QLYS) versus The Competition

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) is one of 959 publicly-traded companies in the “Software” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Qualys to related businesses based on the strength of its valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Qualys and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Qualys	1	12	4	1	2.28
Qualys Competitors	5835	21614	45009	1500	2.57

Qualys presently has a consensus target price of $195.00, indicating a potential upside of 12.54%. As a group, “Software” companies have a potential upside of 27.91%. Given Qualys’ competitors stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Qualys has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Profitability

This table compares Qualys and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Qualys	29.59%	37.09%	19.51%
Qualys Competitors	-599.26%	26.08%	-8.90%

Risk & Volatility

Qualys has a beta of 0.54, meaning that its stock price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Qualys’ competitors have a beta of 1.35, meaning that their average stock price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Qualys and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Qualys	$721.14 million	$198.32 million	28.83
Qualys Competitors	$1.91 billion	$382.06 million	112.22

Qualys’ competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Qualys. Qualys is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

99.3% of Qualys shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.5% of shares of all “Software” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of Qualys shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 19.9% of shares of all “Software” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Qualys competitors beat Qualys on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

About Qualys

Qualys, Inc. provides cloud-based security and compliance software to help organizations identify and manage cybersecurity risks. Its platform brings together information about an organization’s IT assets and security posture to support vulnerability management, threat detection, and compliance activities. Qualys offers products and services for vulnerability assessment and remediation, cloud security, endpoint protection, web application security, and policy compliance. Its solutions are designed to help customers monitor systems across cloud environments, on-premises infrastructure, and other connected assets.