Benzinga | Jul 26, 2021 10:07AM EDT

Qualys Bags Federal Contract, Loop Capital Downgrades Stock To Hold

* Qualys Inc's (NASDAQ:QLYS) FedRAMP-authorized Cloud Platform won a contract to assist the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Dynamic and Evolving Federal Enterprise Network Defense (DEFEND) Group F program.

* The financial terms of the contract remain undisclosed.

* The Platform will provide over 70 non-cabinet level federal agencies with continuous vulnerability assessment, configuration settings management, software and hardware asset management, and dynamic application security testing.

* Additionally, Loop Capital analyst Yun Kim downgraded Qualys to Hold from Buy with a price target of $105, down from $140, implying a 4.5% upside.

* Kim's recent industry checks into the security software industry revealed that large organizations were planning to better manage all the investments in security software that they had admittedly made in haste without any long-term strategic plan.

* Kim acknowledged not making a negative call on any security software vendor. However, he also believes that their collective growth rates may have peaked.

* Price action: QLYS shares traded lower by 0.17% at $100.28 on the last check Monday.