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

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:CHKP) was the target of a large 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 days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.2 days. Currently, 3.8% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CHKP. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 price target (up previously from $175.00) on shares of Check Point Software Technologies in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Check Point Software Technologies from $165.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Check Point Software Technologies from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Check Point Software Technologies from $168.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Wedbush increased their price target on shares of Check Point Software Technologies from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $184.47.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Check Point Software Technologies

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Check Point Software Technologies by 2.1% in the 2nd 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 lifted 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 valued at $677,869,000 after acquiring an additional 391,983 shares during the period. Boston Partners lifted its position in Check Point Software Technologies by 13.1% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,623,923 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $594,169,000 after acquiring an additional 419,404 shares during the period. Ninety One UK Ltd lifted its position in Check Point Software Technologies by 1.1% during the 2nd 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 lifted its position in Check Point Software Technologies by 3.0% during the 1st 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 during the period. 87.62% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Check Point Software Technologies Stock Down 2.0 %

Shares of CHKP opened at $188.99 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.25, a PEG ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.62. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $187.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $169.37. Check Point Software Technologies has a twelve month low of $126.57 and a twelve month high of $196.56.

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