Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Stock Price Down 4.1% – Here’s Why

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) shares dropped 4.1% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $169.40 and last traded at $169.7290. Approximately 69,636 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 91% from the average daily volume of 752,648 shares. The stock had previously closed at $177.01.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

QLYS has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wedbush lowered their price objective on Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $190.00 target price on shares of Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Qualys from $145.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Qualys from $100.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Qualys from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Qualys has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $170.53.

Qualys Stock Up 2.1%

The company has a market capitalization of $6.03 billion, a PE ratio of 30.16 and a beta of 0.62. The company’s 50 day moving average is $163.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $119.91.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $182.18 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $178.57 million. Qualys had a net margin of 29.38% and a return on equity of 37.52%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.68 EPS. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.740-7.880 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.910-1.980 EPS. Analysts forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.85 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Qualys

In other Qualys news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,627 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.04, for a total value of $248,996.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 75,743 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,591,708.72. This represents a 2.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Wendy Pfeiffer sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.19, for a total value of $79,095.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 12,210 shares in the company, valued at $1,931,499.90. The trade was a 3.93% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 58,614 shares of company stock valued at $7,747,968. Company insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qualys

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in QLYS. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Qualys during the second quarter valued at about $792,316,000. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Qualys by 13,255.9% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 5,651,801 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $777,066,000 after acquiring an additional 5,609,484 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Qualys during the second quarter valued at approximately $197,624,000. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Qualys in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $78,591,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Qualys by 127.0% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 832,796 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $73,161,000 after acquiring an additional 465,952 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Company Profile

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.