Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Releases Q4 Earnings Guidance

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) issued an update on its fourth quarter earnings guidance on Tuesday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $1.28-1.38 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share 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.

Qualys Price Performance

QLYS traded up $3.63 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $128.23. 1,448,250 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 429,681. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $124.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $136.41. The company has a market cap of $4.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.24 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 announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $1.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $148.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $148.80 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 44.80% and a net margin of 29.36%. Qualys’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.95 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Qualys will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Qualys from $170.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Qualys from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 7th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Qualys from $130.00 to $120.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Scotiabank lowered their target price on Qualys from $167.00 to $150.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Westpark Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Qualys in a report on Monday, August 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $144.23.

Insider Transactions at Qualys

In other news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.21, for a total value of $876,470.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 179,649 shares in the company, valued at $22,493,851.29. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of Qualys stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.21, for a total transaction of $876,470.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 179,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,493,851.29. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Joo Mi Kim sold 616 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.54, for a total transaction of $76,100.64. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 86,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,695,599.04. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,919 shares of company stock valued at $1,360,140 in the last three months. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.