Qualys

QLYS on Nasdaq. Qualys sells cloud security and compliance software to organizations. Market value $6.9bn.

Watch this stockFree. We tell you when something changes.

Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.

We can't read total debt from the filing, so debt is left out.

Should I look at this?

Good business, but not cheap right now

See cheaper Technology stocks on the list

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

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Cash yield
past 12 months to June 2026
4.6%fair

For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $4.57 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.

Price to profit
past 12 months to June 2026
n/a

The filings do not give us enough to work this out.

Return on capital
five annual reports to December 2025
n/a

The filings do not give us enough to work this out.

Quality score: 80 of 100. Price score: 58 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$198.68 a share, 167% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $74.51 to $201.54.

Pays no dividend

Prices from Monday’s close (5 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.3
0.3
2021202220232024202512 monthsto Jun '26
Revenue
$411m$490m$554m$608m$669m
Operating margin
21.3%26.7%29.4%30.8%33.2%
Debt to equity
n/an/an/an/an/a
Shares outstanding
0.04bn0.04bn0.04bn0.04bn0.03bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
  • Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Not enough data
  • Financial strength (Piotroski)7 of 8 checks we could run
  • Profit backed by cash (accruals)No
  • DebtUnknown
  • Revenue growth, five yearsStrong, 13.0% a year
  • Buying back its own sharesYes, 9% fewer since 2021

The quarter to June 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Sales: $182 million last quarter, up 11% on a year ago.
  • Profit: $52 million, up 11% on a year ago.
  • It keeps 34 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, up from 31 cents a year earlier.
  • Spare cash over the past 12 months: $314 million, up from $240 million.
  • 4% fewer shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit more of the company.
  • Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
Sales by quarter
Sales by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$154m
December 2024$159m
March 2025$160m
June 2025$164m
September 2025$170m
December 2025$175m
March 2026$176m
June 2026$182m
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$46m
December 2024$44m
March 2025$48m
June 2025$47m
September 2025$50m
December 2025$53m
March 2026$51m
June 2026$52m

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
n/a
Last annual report (10-K)
20 February 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
3 November 2026

Who owns it

3 long-term investors we follow own it, down from 5 last quarter. 430 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26
Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

3 investors own more than 5%.

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 6 sold $24m, $23m of it under preset trading plans.

  • POSEY BRUCE K
    CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    21 September 2026
    Shares
    866
    Price
    $179.49
    Value
    $155,442
  • Thakar Sumedh S
    CEO & PRESIDENT, Director
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    14 September 2026
    Shares
    3,200
    Price
    $170.05
    Value
    $544,152
  • Kim Joo Mi
    CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    2 September 2026
    Shares
    1,030
    Price
    $169.62
    Value
    $174,712
  • Berquist Thomas
    Director
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    2 September 2026
    Shares
    511
    Price
    $175.27
    Value
    $89,563
  • Pfeiffer Wendy
    Director
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    20 August 2026
    Shares
    500
    Price
    $185.00
    Value
    $92,500
  • POSEY BRUCE K
    CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    20 August 2026
    Shares
    866
    Price
    $184.23
    Value
    $159,544
  • Thakar Sumedh S
    CEO & PRESIDENT, Director
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    14 August 2026
    Shares
    3,200
    Price
    $188.97
    Value
    $604,708
  • Kim Joo Mi
    CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    3 August 2026
    Shares
    1,627
    Price
    $153.04
    Value
    $248,995
  • Pfeiffer Wendy
    Director
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    20 July 2026
    Shares
    500
    Price
    $158.19
    Value
    $79,095
  • POSEY BRUCE K
    CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    20 July 2026
    Shares
    882
    Price
    $158.17
    Value
    $139,508

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

Warning signs in its filings

Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.

None of the warning signs we check for were found.

We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.

We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 20 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 4 Aug 2026 and 3 later 8-Ks.

A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.

What could go wrong

Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

What changed in the risks this year

Companies must list what could hurt them each year. These are the parts that changed since last year’s report.

  • A portion of our revenues are generated by sales to government entities, which are subject to a number of challenges and risks.

    Could happen
    We have invested in the creation of a cloud offering certified under the Federal Information Security Management Act for government usage but we cannot be sure that we will continue to sustain or renew this certification, that the government will continue to mandate such certification or that other government agencies or entities will use this cloud offering. We have obtained authorization under FedRAMP, which facilitates our entry into the U.S. federal government market. Such certification is subject to rigorous compliance and if we lose our certification, it could inhibit or preclude our ability to contract with certain U.S. federal government customers. In addition, some customers may rely on our authorization under FedRAMP to help satisfy their own legal and regulatory compliance requirements and our failure to maintain FedRAMP authorization might result in a breach under public sector contracts obtained on the basis of such authorization. This could subject us to liability, result in reputational harm, and adversely impact our financial condition or operating results.
    Read more

Read it in the annual report

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
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What a finished deep dive looks like

Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.