Israel’s Check Point Software, the cyber security company that was the first and most renowned success to come out of Startup Nation, had a better than expected first quarter in 2022 with rising stock value. This is in sharp contrast to the markets overall.
Check Point Software reported quarterly earnings for Q1 2022 of $1.57 per share, compared to earnings of $1.54 per share a year ago.
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The company posted earnings of $2.25 per share, higher than the anticipated $2.14 per share. Check Point’s shares have risen by 19.1% since the start of 2021. This is against an overall decline of 9.9% registered by the S&P since the start of 2022. Stock markets are down everywhere because of rising inflation and investor fears caused by the continuing crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This has led to a sharp rise in the price of oil. And the Federal Reserve is also expected to raise interest rates which usually causes a drop in the markets.
Check Point posted revenues of $542.7 million for the quarter ended March 2022, compared to year-ago revenues of $507.6 million. This constitutes a 7% growth in revenue.
The company’s operating expenses, however, jumped from $208 million a year ago to $238 million in Q1. This is in part due to an increase of 15% in Check Point’s sales and development expenditures, something justified by its increased sales.
“The first quarter opened strongly,” commented Tal Payne, Check Point Software’s CFO. “We continue to see an acceleration in sales and in long-term contracts.”
“The supply chain continues to be a challenging issue all over the world, and like everyone else we pay more for the raw materials and that’s why we are able to deliver the products to customers,” added Payne. “It no longer takes a day or two as it once did, but a week or two, but competitors deliver more slowly, it even takes them months. These challenges will not end in the next quarter, but we hope they will towards the end of the year.”
So, why is Check Point surging when other major brands are hurting? Well, it has to do with cyber security. The threat of hackers – and this includes state-sponsored cyber-terror being enacted by countries like Iran – has never been greater. Both big companies and private individuals, as well as governments, are in constant threat of having private and secret information stolen and/or being locked out of their own systems in ransomware attacks.
