Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Posts Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.16 EPS

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The software maker reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by ($0.16), Zacks reports. Qualys had a return on equity of 40.24% and a net margin of 28.72%. Qualys updated its FY 2025 guidance to 5.500-5.900 EPS and its Q1 2025 guidance to 1.400-1.500 EPS.

Qualys Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of QLYS stock traded down $5.26 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $140.71. The stock had a trading volume of 583,229 shares, compared to its average volume of 386,675. The business’s fifty day moving average is $143.69 and its 200-day moving average is $135.66. The firm has a market cap of $5.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.99 and a beta of 0.56. Qualys has a 1-year low of $119.17 and a 1-year high of $182.45.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Westpark Capital restated a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Qualys from $123.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. DA Davidson upped their price objective on Qualys from $120.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Qualys from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Qualys from $150.00 to $162.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $152.80.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.66, for a total value of $1,047,620.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 225,453 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,741,295.98. This represents a 3.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 8,555 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.62, for a total value of $1,322,774.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 64,032 shares in the company, valued at $9,900,627.84. This represents a 11.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 31,259 shares of company stock valued at $4,578,153. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

About Qualys

Qualys, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud-based platform delivering information technology (IT), security, and compliance solutions in the United States and internationally. It offers Qualys Cloud Apps, which include Cybersecurity Asset Management and External Attack Surface Management; Vulnerability Management, Detection and Response; Web Application Scanning; Patch Management; Custom Assessment and Remediation; Multi-Vector Endpoint Detection and Response; Context Extended Detection and Response; Policy Compliance; File Integrity Monitoring; and Qualys TotalCloud, as well as Cloud Workload Protection, Cloud Detection and Response, Cloud Security Posture Management, Infrastructure as Code, and Container Security.