Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Hits New 12-Month High – Should You Buy?

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) shares hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $164.21 and last traded at $164.12, with a volume of 768402 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $151.54.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Truist Financial lowered their price target on Qualys from $120.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of Qualys from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Qualys from $90.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Scotiabank raised shares of Qualys from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $100.00 to $190.00 in a report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Wedbush cut their target price on shares of Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Qualys currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $133.13.

Qualys Stock Up 8.3%

The stock has a fifty day moving average of $115.87 and a 200-day moving average of $109.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.47 and a beta of 0.61.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $173.63 million. The company’s revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.67 EPS. 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 forecast that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In related news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,627 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.17, for a total value of $162,976.59. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 83,211 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,335,245.87. This trade represents a 1.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 30,000 shares of the business’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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 196,686 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,552,610. This trade represents a 13.23% 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. Insiders have sold a total of 73,846 shares of company stock valued at $9,239,073 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of QLYS. Root Financial Partners LLC boosted its position in Qualys by 206.2% in the 1st quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 297 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Strive Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Qualys during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 143 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in shares of Qualys by 86.8% during the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 284 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 132 shares during the period. Finally, Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in Qualys in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. 99.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.