Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:CHKP) Short Interest Update

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:CHKP) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,280,000 shares, a growth of 7.2% from the August 31st total of 3,060,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 634,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.2 days. Currently, 3.8% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on CHKP. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Check Point Software Technologies from $168.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Barclays raised their price target on Check Point Software Technologies from $175.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Check Point Software Technologies from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Check Point Software Technologies from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Check Point Software Technologies from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Sixteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $184.47.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Check Point Software Technologies

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of Check Point Software Technologies by 2.1% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,527,700 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $912,070,000 after purchasing an additional 114,938 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in Check Point Software Technologies by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 4,108,685 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $677,869,000 after buying an additional 391,983 shares during the period. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Check Point Software Technologies by 13.1% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,623,923 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $594,169,000 after buying an additional 419,404 shares in the last quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its position in shares of Check Point Software Technologies by 1.1% in the second quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 3,608,785 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $595,450,000 after acquiring an additional 39,092 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of Check Point Software Technologies by 3.0% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,674,761 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $440,266,000 after acquiring an additional 77,849 shares in the last quarter. 87.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Check Point Software Technologies Stock Down 1.0 %

CHKP opened at $193.04 on Monday. Check Point Software Technologies has a 12-month low of $126.57 and a 12-month high of $196.56. The business has a 50 day moving average of $186.72 and a 200-day moving average of $169.01. The stock has a market cap of $21.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.81, a PEG ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.62.

Check Point Software Technologies (NASDAQ:CHKP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $2.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $627.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $623.19 million. Check Point Software Technologies had a return on equity of 31.59% and a net margin of 33.61%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.74 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Check Point Software Technologies will post 7.83 earnings per share for the current year.

About Check Point Software Technologies

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. develops, markets, and supports a range of products and services for IT security worldwide. The company offers a multilevel security architecture, cloud, network, mobile devices, endpoints information, and IOT solutions. It provides Check Point Infinity Architecture, a cyber security architecture that protects against fifth generation cyber-attacks across various networks, endpoint, cloud, workloads, Internet of Things, and mobile.