What happened?
Shares of cybersecurity cloud platform provider Qualys (NASDAQ: QLYS) fell 12.8% in the afternoon session after the company announced its third quarter 2026 financial results and raised its full-year revenue guidance.
According to a company press release, Qualys reported revenue of $188 million for the third quarter of 2026, an increase of 10.7% year on year. Revenue was above analyst expectations of $186.6 million. Adjusted earnings per share was $2.12, which was above analyst estimates of $1.96, while GAAP diluted net income per share was $1.62. Adjusted EBITDA was $89.93 million, which was above analyst estimates of $83.43 million. The release also said that billings increased 15.5% year on year to $211.9 million, and operating margin was 35.3%. For the fourth quarter of 2026, the company projected revenue of $192 million at the midpoint, which was above analyst estimates. It also raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to a range of $736.9 million to $738.9 million and increased its full-year adjusted earnings per share guidance to $8.11 at the midpoint.
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What is the market telling us
Qualys’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 33 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Qualys and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was about 24 hours ago when the stock gained 5.4% on the news that the company announced the expansion of its global Risk Operations Center alliance to include new technology partners and partner certification tracks.
The expansion adds technology partners across mobile, operational technology, internet of things, and identity attack surfaces. The new partners include Claroty, Lookout, NowSecure, Nozomi Networks, and Okta. Telemetry from these partners will feed into Qualys Enterprise TruRisk Management. Qualys also introduced partner certification tracks to unify exposure management, risk prioritization, and remediation across hybrid, cloud, and endpoint environments.
Qualys is up 34.9% since the beginning of the year, but at $176.76 per share, it is still trading 23.2% below its 52-week high of $230.29 from October 2026. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Qualys’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,284.
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