Summary
Qualys closed FY2024 with fourth-quarter revenue of $159.2 million, up 10.1% from the prior-year quarter. Gross profit rose 10.8% to $130.2 million, and GAAP gross margin was 81.8%, up 0.5 percentage points. Operating income increased 19.2% to $49.4 million, lifting operating margin to 31.0%, up 2.4 percentage points. Net income rose 8.3% to $44.0 million. Non-GAAP net income was $59.4 million, or $1.60 per diluted share, and Adjusted EBITDA was $74.2 million. The quarter also produced operating cash flow of $47.7 million, up 41.0%, while capital expenditures rose 283.3% to $5.8 million. Deferred revenue stood at $395.7 million, up 8.4%, and remaining performance obligations were $434.6 million, up 16.1%.
For the full year, revenue reached $607.6 million, up 9.6%. Gross profit rose 11.0% to $496.1 million, and full-year gross margin was 81.7%, up 1.0 percentage point. Operating income rose 14.8% to $187.2 million, with an operating margin of 30.8%, up 1.4 percentage points. Net income rose 14.6% to $173.7 million, and diluted EPS was $4.65, up 15.4%. Full-year non-GAAP net income was $229.0 million, or $6.13 per diluted share. Operating cash flow was $244.1 million, flat year over year. Capital expenditures rose 40.4% to $12.3 million. The full-year cash flow result is notable because operating cash flow did not grow even as net income increased, and capital spending stepped up.
Qualys kept adding to its product portfolio. The company launched the Risk Operations Center with Enterprise TruRisk Management, which aims to unify cyber risk operations with business priorities. Management highlighted newer products including Cybersecurity Asset Management, Patch Management, and TotalCloud. The company also reported that its Endpoint Detection and Response solution achieved 100% major step detection in MITRE ATT&CK results with the lowest number of false positives among participating solutions. Calculated current billings were $192.8 million, up 13%. Qualys repurchased $139.9 million of common stock during 2024 and announced a $200 million increase to its share repurchase program, bringing total authorization to $1.4 billion. The net dollar expansion rate was 103% for 2024 and 105% for 2023.
Qualys issued guidance for the first quarter and full year 2025. For the first quarter of 2025, the company expects revenue of $155.5 million to $158.5 million, representing 7% to 9% growth over the same quarter in 2024. Non-GAAP net income per diluted share is expected to be $1.40 to $1.50. For full-year 2025, revenue is guided to $645.0 million to $657.0 million, representing 6% to 8% growth over 2024. Non-GAAP net income per diluted share is expected to be $5.50 to $5.90. The company assumes a 22% GAAP effective tax rate and a 21% non-GAAP effective tax rate for 2025.
The main risks remain familiar. Qualys cites macroeconomic uncertainty, inflationary pressure, high interest rates, volatile global markets, reduced spending, extended sales cycles, and geopolitical conflicts as factors that could hurt long-term business. Competition in cloud security, customer retention, currency exchange rate fluctuations, and unexpected changes in the effective income tax rate also appear among the stated risks. The net dollar expansion rate of 103% for 2024 and the flat full-year operating cash flow deserve monitoring alongside the new product launches. The full-year 2025 revenue guidance calls for 6% to 8% growth over 2024, while full-year 2024 revenue grew 9.6%.
Forecast
Reported figures
GAAP, from SEC filings| Metric | Q4 FY2024 | Q3 FY2024 | QoQ | Q4 FY2023 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $159.2M | $153.9M | +3.5% | $144.6M | +10.1% |
| Gross profit | $130.2M | $125.0M | +4.1% | $117.4M | +10.8% |
| Gross margin | 81.8% | 81.3% | +0.5 pp | 81.2% | +0.5 pp |
| Research & development | $28.3M | $28.9M | -2.1% | $27.5M | +3.0% |
| Sales & marketing | $34.1M | $32.7M | +4.2% | $31.9M | +6.6% |
| General & administrative | $18.4M | $18.5M | -0.6% | $16.6M | +11.0% |
| Total operating expenses | $80.7M | $80.1M | +0.8% | $76.0M | +6.3% |
| Operating income (loss) | $49.4M | $45.0M | +9.9% | $41.5M | +19.2% |
| Operating margin | 31.0% | 29.2% | +1.8 pp | 28.7% | +2.4 pp |
| Net income (loss) | $44.0M | $46.2M | -4.9% | $40.6M | +8.3% |
| Net margin | 27.6% | 30.0% | -2.4 pp | 28.1% | -0.5 pp |
| Diluted EPS | $1.18 | $1.24 | -$0.06 | $1.08 | +$0.10 |
| Customers | 10,000 | — | — | 10,000 | ±0.0% |
Risks
MD&A's Impacts of Current Macroeconomic Environment flags inflationary pressure, high interest rates, global market volatility, reduced spending and extended sales cycles, and geopolitical conflicts that could materially adversely affect long-term business and customer IT security spending.
The filing says the sales cycle typically ranges from six to twelve months but can be more than eighteen months; large transactions and the current macroeconomic environment make timing difficult and revenues may vary from period to period.
Qualys competes with CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, Rapid7, Tenable, and private security providers such as Wiz; larger competitors can bundle products and lower prices, increasing pricing pressure and potentially reducing average sales prices and gross margins.
Channel partners generated approximately 46% of 2024 revenues, compared with 43% in 2023 and 42% in 2022; agreements are generally non-exclusive and partners may emphasize competitors' products, so loss of a large partner could adversely affect sales.
As a security provider, Qualys may be and has been targeted for cyber-attacks; the filing states it has experienced security incidents and that AI and machine learning use may create additional cybersecurity risks or increase risks of breaches and technical error.
The company has incorporated AI and machine learning into its solutions and expects to rely on it for future growth, but competitors may incorporate AI more quickly or successfully, and evolving laws such as the EU AI Act may require significant changes or create liability.
As of December 31, 2024, approximately 77% of employees were outside the United States, with 68% in India; for 2024, about 25% of revenues were generated in foreign currencies and 29% of expenses were incurred in foreign currencies, exposing results to currency, tax, and regulatory risks.
Privacy and data protection laws including GDPR, CCPA, CPRA, and many state laws impose compliance costs and penalties; GDPR fines can be up to the greater of four percent of prior-year annual revenue or 20 million euros.
Customers have no obligation to renew subscriptions, and the net dollar expansion rate was 103% for 2024 compared with 105% for 2023; failure to renew or upsell could cause revenues to grow more slowly or decline.
Substantially all solutions are hosted from 14 third-party shared cloud platforms, and some are not currently redundant; a disruption or failure to renew provider agreements could interrupt service delivery and reduce revenues.
Growth depends on recruiting and retaining qualified sales personnel; competition for highly skilled personnel is intense and new hires may not become productive as quickly as desired, while senior management can terminate employment at any time.
SaaS KPIs
All quarters →Calculated Current Billings
Subscription Customers
Summary, forecast, risks and KPIs are extracted from QUALYS, INC.'s SEC filings for Q4 FY2024 (10-Q / 10-K and the 8-K earnings release); GAAP figures in the summary are checked against the reported XBRL data. They can contain errors; the filings are authoritative. Processed Oct 2, 2026.