Investors Buy Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP) on Weakness Following Analyst Downgrade

Traders purchased shares of Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:CHKP) on weakness during trading hours on Friday after Piper Jaffray Companies downgraded the stock from an overweight rating to a neutral rating. $53.36 million flowed into the stock on the tick-up and $38.19 million flowed out of the stock on the tick-down, for a money net flow of $15.17 million into the stock. Of all companies tracked, Check Point Software Technologies had the 23rd highest net in-flow for the day. Check Point Software Technologies traded down ($1.02) for the day and closed at $106.39

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on CHKP. BidaskClub raised Check Point Software Technologies from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 12th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $115.00 price objective (down from $117.00) on shares of Check Point Software Technologies in a research note on Friday. Oppenheimer Holdings, Inc. reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $115.00 price objective on shares of Check Point Software Technologies in a research note on Tuesday, July 4th. Zacks Investment Research lowered Check Point Software Technologies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 4th. Finally, Vetr raised Check Point Software Technologies from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $107.79 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, June 12th. Nineteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Check Point Software Technologies currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $108.03.

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC boosted its stake in shares of Check Point Software Technologies by 1.3% in the second quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 2,407 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $263,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the period. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its stake in shares of Check Point Software Technologies by 2.4% in the first quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 1,513 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $155,000 after buying an additional 36 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Vermont boosted its stake in shares of Check Point Software Technologies by 2.2% in the second quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 1,814 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $198,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the period. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Check Point Software Technologies by 1.9% in the first quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 3,084 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $317,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Trust N.A. boosted its stake in shares of Check Point Software Technologies by 1.5% in the first quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 4,976 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $511,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the period. 72.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

The company has a market cap of $17.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.67 and a beta of 0.73. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $112.06 and its 200 day moving average is $103.93.

Check Point Software Technologies (NASDAQ:CHKP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 20th. The technology company reported $1.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.04. Check Point Software Technologies had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 42.17%. The business had revenue of $458.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $454.62 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.09 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. will post $5.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Check Point Software Technologies

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Check point) develops, markets and supports a range of products and services for information technology (IT) security. The Company’s products and services are sold to enterprises, service providers, small and medium sized businesses and consumers. It offers enterprises a platform to deploy independent, modular and interoperable security applications (Software Blades), such as firewall, virtual private network (VPN), intrusion prevention system (IPS), Application Control, Anti-Bot, antivirus, data loss prevention (DLP), policy management, event analysis or multi-domain management.