Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Qualys (QLYS) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

Read MoreHide Full Article

Qualys (QLYS - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $102.73, moving +0.85% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 2.28% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 2.13%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 5.02%.

Heading into today, shares of the maker of security-analysis software had lost 13.49% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 8.41% and the S&P 500's loss of 4.61% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Qualys as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Qualys to post earnings of $0.91 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 8.33%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $130.31 million, up 18.7% from the year-ago period.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Qualys. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Qualys is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Qualys has a Forward P/E ratio of 25.4 right now. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 27.74.

The Security industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 193, which puts it in the bottom 24% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


Qualys, Inc. (QLYS) - free report >>

Published in