JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Check Point Software Technologies reported on Monday a bigger than expected rise in second quarter net profit and revenue as a sharp increase in sophisticated cyber attacks boosted demand for its products.
Chief Executive Gil Shwed said there had been a 93% annual rise in more advanced “Gen V” attacks, particularly ransomware, making them the “new norm”.
“More than 1,200 organisations are hurt each week by ransomware attacks. We see the highest increase in Latin America and Europe, but we see an increase everywhere,” Shwed told a news conference.
To combat the trend the company has combined its technologies that help protect cloud storage systems and corporate and home networks into one suite called Infinity, which Shwed said saw triple-digit quarterly sales growth.
The Israel-based company said it earned $1.61 perdiluted share excluding one-time items in the quarter, upfrom $1.58 a year earlier. Revenue grew 4% to $526 million, withthe company on its way to top $2 billion for a second straightyear. It was forecast to earn $1.56 a share on revenue of $523.8million, according to I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv.
For the third quarter, it sees revenue of $515-$540 million and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.54-$1.64. Analysts have forecast EPS of $1.58 on revenue of $527.9 million.
Check Point kept its full-year estimates for revenue of $2.08-$2.18 billion and adjusted EPS of $6.45-$6.85, compared with 2020 results of $2.07 billion and $6.78 respectively.
The company said it bought back 2.7 million shares in thequarter worth $325 million as part of its share repurchaseprogramme.
(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
