Check Point Software Q2 profit, revenue beat estimates

Check Point reported on Monday a bigger than expected rise in second quarter net profit and revenue as a sharp increase in sophisticated cyber attacks boosted demand for its products.

Chief Executive Gil Shwed said there had been a 93 percent annual rise in more advanced “Gen V” attacks, particularly ransomware, making them the “new norm”.

“More than 1,200 organisations are hurt each week by ransomware attacks. We see the highest increase in Latin America and Europe, but we see an increase everywhere,” Shwed told a news conference.

To combat the trend the company has combined its technologies that help protect cloud storage systems and corporate and home networks into one suite called Infinity, which Shwed said saw triple-digit quarterly sales growth.

The Israel-based company said it earned US$1.61 per diluted share excluding one-time items in the quarter, upfrom US$1.58 a year earlier. Revenue grew 4 percent to US$526 million, with the company on its way to top US$2 billion for a second straight year. It was forecast to earn US$1.56 a share on revenue of US$523.8million, according to I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv.

For the third quarter, it sees revenue of US$515-US$540 million and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of US$1.54-US$1.64. Analysts have forecast EPS of US$1.58 on revenue of US$527.9 million.

Check Point kept its full-year estimates for revenue of US$2.08-US$2.18 billion and adjusted EPS of US$6.45-US$6.85, compared with 2020 results of US$2.07 billion and US$6.78 respectively.

The company said it bought back 2.7 million shares in the quarter worth US$325 million as part of its share repurchase programme.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)Got a news tip for our journalists? Share it with us anonymously here.

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