Check Point Software Technologies (NASDAQ:CHKP) Raised to “Hold” at KeyCorp

Check Point Software Technologies (NASDAQ:CHKP) was upgraded by equities research analysts at KeyCorp to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on CHKP. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Check Point Software Technologies in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Roth Capital reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Check Point Software Technologies in a research note on Monday, October 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Check Point Software Technologies from $257.00 to $251.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. Scotiabank upped their price target on Check Point Software Technologies from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on Check Point Software Technologies from $215.00 to $195.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and fifteen have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $229.50.

Check Point Software Technologies Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CHKP opened at $190.00 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $20.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.81, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.59. Check Point Software Technologies has a 12 month low of $178.68 and a 12 month high of $234.35. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $190.62 and its 200 day moving average price is $197.18.

Check Point Software Technologies (NASDAQ:CHKP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.45 by $1.49. Check Point Software Technologies had a return on equity of 37.91% and a net margin of 37.62%.The company had revenue of $677.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $673.60 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.25 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. Check Point Software Technologies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 11.220-11.320 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 2.700-2.800 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Check Point Software Technologies will post 8.61 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Check Point Software Technologies

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of Check Point Software Technologies by 27.1% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,170,455 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,276,729,000 after buying an additional 1,317,167 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Check Point Software Technologies in the 2nd quarter worth about $714,801,000. Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its position in Check Point Software Technologies by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 2,601,592 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $538,295,000 after acquiring an additional 8,814 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in Check Point Software Technologies by 31.4% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,497,275 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $516,711,000 after acquiring an additional 597,413 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in Check Point Software Technologies by 8.5% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,171,322 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $449,274,000 after acquiring an additional 170,075 shares in the last quarter. 98.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Check Point Software Technologies Company Profile

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. is an Israeli-founded cybersecurity company that develops, markets and supports a broad portfolio of network, cloud and endpoint security products. Founded in 1993, the company was an early pioneer of stateful inspection firewall technology and later developed a modular “software blade” approach that allowed customers to combine protection capabilities. Check Point’s product set spans physical and virtual security appliances, software and cloud-native services designed to prevent cyberattacks, protect data and simplify security management for enterprises and service providers.

Key product families include Quantum Security Gateways (on-premises and hybrid appliances), CloudGuard (cloud security posture and workload protection), Harmony (endpoint, remote access and unified endpoint security), and SandBlast (advanced threat prevention and sandboxing).