Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Rating Increased to Sector Outperform at Scotiabank

Scotiabank upgraded shares of Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) from a sector perform rating to a sector outperform rating in a research report report published on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Scotiabank currently has $190.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $100.00.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on QLYS. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on Qualys from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wedbush reduced their price objective on Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Qualys from $120.00 to $85.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 24th. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Qualys from $135.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $132.29.

Qualys Price Performance

QLYS stock opened at $158.69 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $5.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.42 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $107.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $109.02. Qualys has a 12 month low of $74.51 and a 12 month high of $161.06.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.81 by $0.14. Qualys had a net margin of 29.41% and a return on equity of 37.15%. The company had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.63 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.67 EPS. Qualys’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. 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 anticipate that Qualys will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In other news, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 1,627 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.17, for a total transaction of $162,976.59. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 83,211 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,335,245.87. The trade was a 1.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Thomas Berquist sold 939 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.75, for a total value of $103,994.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 6,781 shares in the company, valued at $750,995.75. The trade was a 12.16% 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. Insiders have sold 73,846 shares of company stock worth $9,239,073 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qualys

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in QLYS. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its holdings in Qualys by 40.5% in the 2nd quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 472 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $65,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Qualys by 96.7% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 541 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $74,000 after buying an additional 266 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Qualys by 1,338.8% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 129,693 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $11,394,000 after buying an additional 120,679 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Qualys by 12.9% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 6,110 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $537,000 after buying an additional 696 shares during the period. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Qualys during the 1st quarter valued at about $3,057,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

Qualys News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Qualys this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Scotiabank upgraded Qualys from sector perform to sector outperform and raised its price target to $190 from $100, signaling meaningful upside from recent levels.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent bullish coverage argued that Qualys should benefit from rising vulnerability management demand, recent analyst upgrades, and management’s FY2026 outlook, which may be supporting investor optimism.
• Neutral Sentiment: CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 965 shares on July 2 in a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, a routine insider transaction that does not necessarily signal a change in fundamentals. SEC filing
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider Bruce K. Posey also sold 1,000 shares under a pre-arranged trading plan, which may create some headline noise but is generally viewed as administrative rather than a major bearish signal. SEC filing

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.