Qualys' VMDR Platform Earns It Analyst Upgrade

Needham analyst Alex Henderson upgraded Qualys, Inc QLYS to Buy from Hold with a $165 price target.
Qualys' VMDR product gained traction, and the investments in marketing finally started to fall into place to help drive growth.
The CY2Q print was a solid one beating on Revenues and EPS and guiding up even as investments in Distribution and Sales capacity ramp against a more challenging economic environment.
Even as Rapid7, Inc RPD and Tenable Holdings, Inc TENB noted pressure in the VM market, Qualys has seen acceleration to 20% growth, with the bulk of the acceleration coming from upselling VMDR subscriptions to existing customers.
He thinks this is a strong positive indicator for Qualys' future.
He thinks this upsell success will start to stem share losses and allow Qualys to go on offense increasingly.
For years, he has been pushing Qualys to accelerate investments in its go-to-market to drive accelerated growth.
It has committed to this path, and it looks like it's finally ramping.
He thinks Qualys will deliver better growth and Street margin estimates look overly conservative.
Price Action: QLYS shares traded higher by 0.44% at $131.09 on the last check Friday.

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