Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) Issues Q4 Earnings Guidance

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) updated its fourth quarter earnings guidance on Tuesday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $1.28-1.38 for the period, compared to the consensus 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

Shares of QLYS stock traded up $3.63 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $128.23. The company had a trading volume of 1,448,250 shares, compared to its average volume of 429,681. The company's fifty day moving average is $124.19 and its 200 day moving average is $136.41. Qualys has a fifty-two week low of $119.17 and a fifty-two week high of $206.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.72 billion, a PE ratio of 28.24 and a beta of 0.47.

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $148.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $148.80 million. Qualys had a return on equity of 44.80% and a net margin of 29.36%. Qualys's revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.95 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Qualys will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com cut Qualys from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 3rd. Scotiabank cut their price target on Qualys from $167.00 to $150.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Qualys from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 7th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Qualys from $170.00 to $140.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Qualys from $116.00 to $115.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $144.23.

Insider Buying and Selling at Qualys

In other news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 179,649 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $22,493,851.29. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Sumedh S. Thakar sold 7,000 shares of the firm's 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 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available 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 stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,695,599.04. 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 have sold 10,919 shares of company stock valued at $1,360,140. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company 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.

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