Barclays raised its target price to $35 from $29, and maintained its "Overweight" rating on the stock.
The Barclays analyst expects that companies will begin spending more on networking equipment, which is why they also raised the rating on Cisco, and raised estimates for Juniper Networks. Check Point has a 30 percent market share in enterprise firewalls. As companies widen their networks and increase capacity, and as a result need more security firewall capacity, Barclays expects that Check Point will see a boost in sales.
Hernandez also says that Tel Aviv-based Check Point's acquisition of Nokia's security appliance business ,which was first announced at the end of 2008, can also boost sales. Over the next five years, he expects the 80,000 installed firewall gateways gained with the acquisition to be refreshed, which will lead to possible incremental license sales for Check Point. He notes that "at $20,000-30,000 per appliance, this refresh cycle represents a major incremental opportunity that has yet to be monetized."
Check Point will report quarterly earnings today, and Barclays expects it to post revenue of $229 million, with non-GAAP earnings per shares of $0.48.
Check Point shares closed yesterday at $30.10, giving a market cap of $6.3 billion.
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