Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Trading Down 6% – Should You Sell?

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) shares were down 6% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $144.52 and last traded at $147.0460. 57,454 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 92% from the average session volume of 756,377 shares. The stock had previously closed at $156.37.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on QLYS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Qualys from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $87.00 to $139.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Wedbush decreased their price target on Qualys from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Morgan Stanley set a $96.00 price target on Qualys in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their price objective on Qualys from $150.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Qualys from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued 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, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.80.

Qualys Stock Down 2.5%

The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $123.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $110.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.94 billion, a PE ratio of 25.18 and a beta of 0.61.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The software maker reported $1.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.81 by $0.14. Qualys had a return on equity of 37.15% and a net margin of 29.41%.The firm had revenue of $175.64 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $173.63 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.67 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Qualys has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.440-7.650 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.730-1.800 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Qualys, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Qualys news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.00, for a total transaction of $155,000.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 63,571 shares in the company, valued at $9,853,505. This represents a 1.55% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Thomas Berquist sold 939 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.75, for a total transaction of $103,994.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $750,995.75. This represents 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 sold 73,846 shares of company stock worth $9,239,073 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.72% 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. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its position in shares of Qualys by 63.5% during the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 17,251 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,372,000 after buying an additional 6,700 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Qualys by 24.2% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 11,287 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,552,000 after acquiring an additional 2,202 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Qualys by 35.0% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,578 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $217,000 after acquiring an additional 409 shares in the last quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division grew its holdings in Qualys by 52.0% during the 2nd quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division now owns 2,402 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $330,000 after acquiring an additional 822 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its position in shares of 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 during 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.