NEW YORK, May 26, 2026, 16:05 (EDT)
• Rapid7 ended the day off 1.1% at $7.19, after shares moved between $7.08 and $7.48.
• The stock underperformed as the broader tech sector found strength. The Nasdaq-100 ETF QQQ was up 1.8% late.
• Next time investors hear from Rapid7 management will be June 2, when the company is on the agenda at William Blair’s growth stock conference.
Rapid7 Inc. ended Tuesday at $7.19, off 1.1%, with sellers sticking around after the cybersecurity group put out a weaker outlook for 2026 and analysts trimmed price targets. The close put Rapid7’s market cap near $483 million.
Rapid7 sat out a bounce in software shares. The action came as QQQ, the ETF that follows the Nasdaq-100, gained 1.8% late. SPY, which tracks the S&P 500, was up 0.7%. Rapid7 missed out on those gains.
Rapid7 is feeling the pressure as annualized recurring revenue (ARR) for the second quarter is expected to come in at about $820 million, down about 2% from a year ago. Full-year revenue guidance is also lower, with the company projecting $836 million to $842 million, a decrease of 2% to 3%.
Rapid7’s Q1 results came in mixed. Revenue was $209.7 million, barely lower than a year ago, off 0.3%. Free cash flow climbed to $33.4 million. CEO Corey Thomas called Rapid7’s “AI SOC” and preemptive security “more essential than ever.” SOC refers to security operations center. Rapid7 Investor Relations
Rapid7 CFO Rafe Brown said the company “exceeded guidance expectations across all metrics” in Q1 and is concentrating on growing managed detection and response, or MDR, which is a service where a provider monitors and reacts to threats for clients. The company wants investors to focus on MDR as Rapid7’s key growth business. Rapid7 Investor Relations
Rapid7’s latest threat research is giving management a new sales pitch. The company said last week that in its first-quarter incident response cases, vulnerability exploitation was now the leading way hackers got in, ahead of social engineering, and made up 38%. Rapid7 said about half of exploited vulnerabilities were “zero-click” and network-facing, meaning attackers didn’t need a user to click or log in. Rapid7
Rapid7’s Raj Samani said “AI is quietly rewriting that equation,” talking about the old view that people were always the weakest part of security. Christiaan Beek, vice president of cyber intelligence, said exposed systems can become “operational targets” fast. Rapid7
The stock hasn’t moved up much, even with that backdrop. Benzinga’s analyst-rating feed showed JPMorgan kept its neutral call on May 11 but cut its target to $7 from $11. Targets from Barclays, Canaccord Genuity, Stifel and Scotiabank were all reset in May as well, most between $6.50 and $7.
Zscaler climbed 1.9% late, and Tenable, which is seen as a vulnerability-management peer, added 1.4%. Palo Alto Networks dropped 1.2%. Rapid7 didn’t move as much, a sign traders were keying in on its execution risk more than on overall cybersecurity moves.
Rapid7 presents next at William Blair’s 46th Annual Growth Stock Conference in Chicago on June 2, giving investors another shot to reassess the stock. The company was also at JPMorgan’s technology, media and communications conference on May 20.
The bear case on Rapid7 hasn’t gone away. On the May earnings call, Thomas said exposure management was stabilizing but still wasn’t a growth driver. He told analysts Rapid7 is still in an upgrade cycle in what he called a noisy market. If ARR keeps dropping, or customers hold back on upgrades as they put budgets toward other AI projects, shares could have a hard time hanging onto even current low multiples.
