Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Stock Price Up 7.5% on Analyst Upgrade

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) shares traded up 7.5% during trading on Tuesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded the stock from an underweight rating to a neutral rating. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now has a $139.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $87.00. Qualys traded as high as $136.00 and last traded at $137.9060. 87,738 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 88% from the average daily volume of 747,655 shares. The stock had previously closed at $128.32.

A number of other research firms have also commented on QLYS. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on Qualys from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their target price on Qualys from $150.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wedbush dropped their price target on shares of Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Qualys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $125.86.

Insider Transactions at Qualys

In other news, Director Wendy Pfeiffer sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.55, for a total transaction of $55,275.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 12,710 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,405,090.50. The trade was a 3.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Thomas Berquist sold 939 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.75, for a total transaction of $103,994.25. Following the transaction, the director owned 6,781 shares in the company, valued at $750,995.75. This trade represents a 12.16% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 31,881 shares of company stock worth $3,628,154. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Qualys by 62.4% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 125,636 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $16,769,000 after buying an additional 48,267 shares during the period. Comerica Bank raised its stake in shares of Qualys by 100.6% during the 4th quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 22,710 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,018,000 after acquiring an additional 11,391 shares in the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 208,832 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $27,754,000 after purchasing an additional 18,711 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in Qualys by 147.0% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 33,416 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,441,000 after buying an additional 19,889 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GHP Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Qualys by 6,727.1% in the 4th quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 14,883 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,978,000 after purchasing an additional 14,665 shares in the last quarter. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Qualys Stock Up 6.8%

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $101.35 and its 200 day moving average price is $109.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.59 and a beta of 0.65.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $173.63 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.15% and a net margin of 29.41%.The company’s revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.67 earnings per share. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.440-7.650 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.730-1.800 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

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.