Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) was upgraded by Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

QLYS has been the topic of several other reports. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Qualys from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 13th. DA Davidson raised their target price on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $190.00 target price on shares of Qualys in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Qualys from $100.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Qualys from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Qualys currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $180.53.

Qualys Price Performance

Qualys stock opened at $181.05 on Friday. Qualys has a 52 week low of $74.51 and a 52 week high of $206.25. The company has a market capitalization of $6.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.32 and a beta of 0.60. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $182.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $138.96.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The software maker reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.20. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.52% and a net margin of 29.38%. The firm had revenue of $182.18 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $178.57 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.68 earnings per share. Qualys’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.740-7.880 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.910-1.980 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Qualys will post 5.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In other Qualys news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,627 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief financial officer owned 75,743 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,591,708.72. This represents a 2.10% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Bruce Posey sold 866 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.49, for a total value of $155,438.34. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 58,688 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,533,909.12. This represents a 1.45% 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 9,759 shares of company stock worth $1,717,290. 0.72% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qualys

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in QLYS. Burns Matteson Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Qualys in the third quarter worth about $370,000. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Qualys during the 3rd quarter worth about $213,000. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. grew its position in shares of Qualys by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 2,114 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $396,000 after acquiring an additional 98 shares during the period. ANB Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Qualys during the 3rd quarter valued at about $333,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Qualys by 32.2% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,086 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $390,000 after acquiring an additional 508 shares during the period. 99.31% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Qualys

Qualys, Inc provides cloud-based information technology, security and compliance solutions for organizations worldwide. Its platform is designed to help businesses identify, assess and manage security vulnerabilities across their networks, endpoints, cloud environments and web applications.

The company’s offerings include vulnerability management, asset inventory, security and compliance assessment, web application security, endpoint detection and response, and cloud security capabilities.