Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Reaches New 1-Year Low – Here’s What Happened

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) shares hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $83.38 and last traded at $83.94, with a volume of 81405 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $91.11.

Analyst Ratings Changes

QLYS has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Qualys from $117.00 to $113.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Qualys from $140.00 to $134.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 6th. DA Davidson cut their price target on shares of Qualys from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 6th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Qualys from $139.00 to $135.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Qualys from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Qualys currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $140.46.

Qualys Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $3.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.74 and a beta of 0.62. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $107.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $126.30.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related 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 value of $668,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 247,800 shares in the company, valued at $33,145,728. The trade was a 1.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 6,799 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.46, for a total transaction of $873,399.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 88,489 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,367,296.94. This trade represents a 7.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,232 shares of company stock worth $2,789,020. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Qualys by 3,948.0% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 2,024 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $255,000 after purchasing an additional 1,974 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Qualys in the second quarter worth approximately $292,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Qualys by 6.2% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 521,875 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $74,560,000 after buying an additional 30,429 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its holdings in Qualys by 2.6% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 120,424 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $17,205,000 after buying an additional 3,023 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Qualys by 122.7% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 107,027 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $15,291,000 after acquiring an additional 58,960 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.31% of the company’s stock.

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.