Qualys’ (QLYS) Outperform Rating Reiterated at Wedbush

Wedbush reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) in a research note released on Friday,Benzinga reports. Wedbush currently has a $155.00 price target on the software maker’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on QLYS. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $117.00 target price on shares of Qualys in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $150.00 price objective on shares of Qualys in a research report on Friday. Zacks Research lowered shares of Qualys from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. UBS Group increased their price target on Qualys from $145.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $150.00 price objective on Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Qualys currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $140.46.

Qualys Stock Down 13.3%

QLYS stock opened at $110.80 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.37 and a beta of 0.53. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $137.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $135.03. Qualys has a 52 week low of $109.72 and a 52 week high of $155.47.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The software maker reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $175.28 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.18 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.65% and a net margin of 29.64%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.60 earnings per share. Qualys has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.760-1.830 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 7.170-7.450 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Qualys will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 5,000 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.76, for a total transaction of $668,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 247,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,145,728. The trade was a 1.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,101 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.34, for a total value of $145,706.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 68,598 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,078,259.32. This represents a 1.58% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 44,427 shares of company stock worth $6,217,050 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Qualys

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in QLYS. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Qualys during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in Qualys by 451.0% in the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 270 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 132 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Qualys during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Qualys by 127.0% in the 4th quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 345 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Qualys

Here are the key news stories impacting Qualys this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 results beat expectations — EPS $1.87 vs. $1.78 est; revenue $175.3M vs. $173.2M and revenue +10.1% YoY, showing steady growth and margin expansion. Qualys Q4 Earnings Surpass Expectations, Revenues Increase Y/Y
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised forward guidance: FY2026 EPS 7.170–7.450 (vs. consensus ~6.59) and Q1 EPS 1.760–1.830 (vs. ~1.57), which signals confidence in underlying business momentum. Qualys Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Financial Results
• Positive Sentiment: Board authorized a $200M increase to the share repurchase program — a capital return that reduces float and supports EPS. Qualys Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Financial Results
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support: Wedbush reaffirmed an Outperform rating and $155 price target, implying substantial upside versus current levels. Wedbush Reaffirms Outperform, $155 PT
• Neutral Sentiment: Earnings call and presentation emphasize strategic initiatives, stronger channel sales and expanding margins — useful for longer-term thesis but less immediately market-moving than headline beats/guidance. Qualys Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
• Negative Sentiment: Despite the beat and upgraded guidance, the stock is down today on heavy volume and sits below its 50- and 200-day moving averages — suggesting short-term profit-taking, broader sector pressure or a market re-rating. (Trading stats and moving averages from market data released with the earnings updates.)

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.