Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Grows Stake in Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:CHKP)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its holdings in shares of Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:CHKP) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 37,953 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Check Point Software Technologies were worth $5,799,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Check Point Software Technologies by 1.6% during the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 4,348,630 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $579,517,000 after purchasing an additional 69,441 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of Check Point Software Technologies by 0.3% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,727,583 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $365,851,000 after acquiring an additional 7,493 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of Check Point Software Technologies by 3.4% during the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,626,814 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $216,822,000 after acquiring an additional 52,863 shares during the last quarter. Ariel Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Check Point Software Technologies by 121.2% during the third quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 1,083,364 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $144,391,000 after acquiring an additional 593,623 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Check Point Software Technologies by 14.6% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 792,699 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $105,651,000 after acquiring an additional 101,019 shares during the period. 87.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Check Point Software Technologies Trading Up 1.3 %

CHKP stock opened at $160.80 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $161.95 and a 200-day moving average of $152.72. The company has a market cap of $19.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.58, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.61. Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. has a 12-month low of $117.18 and a 12-month high of $168.82.

Check Point Software Technologies (NASDAQ:CHKP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The technology company reported $2.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.47 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $663.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $662.09 million. Check Point Software Technologies had a return on equity of 30.81% and a net margin of 34.80%. Check Point Software Technologies’s quarterly revenue was up 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.23 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. will post 7.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on CHKP. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Check Point Software Technologies from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Check Point Software Technologies from $132.00 to $162.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Susquehanna upped their price target on Check Point Software Technologies from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Check Point Software Technologies from $140.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Check Point Software Technologies from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Check Point Software Technologies has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $160.16.

Check Point Software Technologies Profile

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.