Check Point profit jumps on strong demand for cyber security

By Tova Cohen

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Network security provider Check Point Software Technologies (CHKP.O) is benefiting from strong global demand for threat-prevention and mobile-security products, it said on Wednesday as it reported better-than-expected quarterly profit.

Check Point, one the world's leading providers of corporate security software, has been expanding this year, buying two Israeli firms - cyber security start-up Hyperwise and Lacoon Mobile Security.

In the second quarter it bolstered its presence in the market for critical infrastructure protection with a combined hardware and software product built for deployment in remote, harsh environments. And last week it launched a product together with VMWare (VMW.N) for cloud security.

"If once security was something needed to help business, today before companies talk about business they talk about security," Chief Executive Gil Shwed said as Israel-based Check Point reported an 11 percent rise in second-quarter profit.

The company's shares opened up 9 percent at $85.84 on Nasdaq following the earnings report. The stock reached a 14-year high of $88.49 in May.

Check Point earned 99 cents per diluted share excluding one-time items in the second quarter, up from 89 cents a year earlier as revenue grew 9 percent to $395 million.

Analysts had, on average, forecast the firm would earn 95 cents a share on revenue of $392.6 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"This was a much better quarter than feared as the bears were calling for a soft quarter," said FBR Capital Markets managing director Daniel Ives.

Check Point, which has added over 500 workers in 2015, bringing its workforce to 3,700, forecast third-quarter earnings per share excluding one-time items of 92 cents to $1.02 on revenue of $392-$410 million. Analysts have forecast it will earn 97 cents on revenue of $403 million.

Shwed maintained his full-year adjusted profit forecast of $3.90 to $4.02 a share on revenue of $1.6-$1.65 billion.

(Editing by Steven Scheer and Pravin Char)