Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Announces Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.16 EPS

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

Qualys Stock Performance

Shares of QLYS traded down $5.26 on Thursday, hitting $140.71. 582,520 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 386,674. Qualys has a one year low of $119.17 and a one year high of $182.45. The company has a market capitalization of $5.15 billion, a PE ratio of 30.99 and a beta of 0.56. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $143.69 and a 200 day simple moving average of $135.66.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on QLYS. Truist Financial upped their target price on Qualys from $120.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Qualys from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Qualys from $130.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Qualys from $150.00 to $162.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Qualys currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $152.80.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In other news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 8,555 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.62, for a total transaction of $1,322,774.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 64,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,900,627.84. This trade represents a 11.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.66, for a total transaction 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 $33,741,295.98. The trade was a 3.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 31,259 shares of company stock valued at $4,578,153. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.