Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Issues Q4 Earnings Guidance

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) updated its fourth quarter earnings guidance on Tuesday. The company provided EPS guidance of $1.28-1.38 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $1.29. The company issued revenue guidance of $154.5-157.5 million, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $154.19 million. Qualys also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 5.810-5.910 EPS.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on QLYS. Northland Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $140.00 price target (down previously from $150.00) on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Qualys from $123.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Qualys from $130.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Qualys from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Westpark Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a research report on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $152.80.

Qualys Price Performance

QLYS traded up $31.00 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $159.23. 2,996,960 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 441,907. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $124.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $136.32. The company has a market cap of $5.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.07 and a beta of 0.47. Qualys has a fifty-two week low of $119.17 and a fifty-two week high of $206.35.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $1.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $148.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $148.80 million. Qualys had a net margin of 29.36% and a return on equity of 44.80%. The business’s revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.95 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Qualys will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Qualys

In other Qualys news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.21, for a total transaction of $876,470.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 179,649 shares in the company, valued at $22,493,851.29. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Qualys news, insider Bruce K. Posey sold 1,330 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.80, for a total transaction of $164,654.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 55,618 shares in the company, valued at $6,885,508.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction 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 stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.21, for a total transaction of $876,470.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 179,649 shares in the company, valued at $22,493,851.29. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 10,919 shares of company stock valued at $1,360,140. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Qualys Company Profile

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.