Qualys, Inc. (QLYS) Stock Price & How to Invest

Qualys (QLYS) is a cloud-based cybersecurity company best known for vulnerability management. Its platform continuously scans an organization's IT assets (servers, endpoints, cloud workloads, web apps, and containers) to find security weaknesses, misconfigurations, and missing patches, then helps prioritize and remediate them. The flagship products are VMDR (Vulnerability Management, Detection and Response) and a growing suite covering cloud security posture, compliance, web application scanning, and patch management.

Qualys sells primarily through a subscription SaaS model, so revenue is recurring and high-margin, and the company is notably profitable for a security vendor, generating strong free cash flow. Customers are typically mid-size and large enterprises plus government agencies that need continuous visibility into their attack surface. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Foster City, California, Qualys is a long-established, financially disciplined player in a sector where many peers prioritize growth over profitability.

Qualys competes against larger, better-funded platforms (Tenable, Rapid7, CrowdStrike, Microsoft) that are bundling vulnerability and exposure management into broader security suites, pressuring standalone vendors. Growth has decelerated to more modest rates as the core market matures, and the company is a relatively small cap in a sector that rewards faster expanders. Larger platform players can undercut on price or include comparable scanning for free inside bundles. Customer concentration in vulnerability management leaves Qualys exposed if newer categories like cloud and exposure management consolidate around competitors. Its conservative growth profile can underperform in momentum-driven markets.

18 analysts publish price targets on QLYS, averaging $131.13 against a $133.83 price as of July 2026, or -2.0%. The published targets run from $90.00 to $190.00, a wide spread, and the ratings split 5 buy, 15 hold, 1 sell. Over the last six months there have been 6 raises and 6 cuts among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full QLYS forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on Qualys, Inc.. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. Vulnerability management core. Qualys is a recognized leader in continuous vulnerability management, a foundational security category that grows as attack surfaces expand across cloud, containers, and remote endpoints. The most optimistic published target, $190.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. Qualys competes against larger, better-funded platforms (Tenable, Rapid7, CrowdStrike, Microsoft) that are bundling vulnerability and exposure management into broader security suites, pressuring standalone vendors. The most pessimistic target, $90.00, is roughly what QLYS is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on QLYS, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Qualys, Inc.'s investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (TTM): ~$650 million
• Revenue growth: High-single to low-double-digit
• Operating margin: ~30% (GAAP); higher non-GAAP
• Free cash flow margin: Strong (often ~40% of revenue)
• Net income (TTM): Solidly profitable (~$150 million range)
• P/E (TTM): ~30x
• Dividend yield: None (buybacks instead)
• Recurring revenue: Predominantly subscription / SaaS

Qualys trades as a profitable, cash-generative SaaS security name rather than a hypergrowth disruptor. Its multiple reflects steady recurring revenue and high margins, balanced against slower growth than platform peers. Valuation tends to compress when growth decelerates and expand when cross-sell and exposure-management momentum reaccelerate.

If you want QLYS exposure as part of a larger bundle rather than directly, these ETFs hold it meaningfully. Weights are approximate and refresh quarterly.

Other names that sit close to QLYS: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get QLYS exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it (BUG, CLOU, IHAK), which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so QLYS sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where QLYS fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

Qualys (QLYS) is a profitable, cash-generative SaaS security name whose sticky vulnerability-management core and land-and-expand cross-sell are weighed against slower growth and larger platforms (CrowdStrike, Palo Alto, Microsoft, Tenable, Rapid7) bundling comparable scanning. In a portfolio it behaves as the steady, free-cash-flow-positive sleeve of a cybersecurity allocation rather than a hypergrowth disruptor.

Whether QLYS is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is QLYS a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the QLYS stock forecast.

For income investors, whether QLYS pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does QLYS pay a dividend? And to weigh QLYS against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: QLYS vs TENB and QLYS vs RPD.