Check Point Delivers Strong Q3 Earnings Despite Hamas Attacks, War

Check Point Software Technologies on Monday reported strong earnings for the third quarter of its fiscal 2023 despite the Hamas attacks on Israel and the ensuing war.

Based in Tel Aviv, Check Point reported a 3% year-over-year increase in revenue to $596 million. It also reported $205 million in profit compared to $184 million in the third quarter of 2022.

Check Point's Gil Shwed

“Our third-quarter performance was strong, marked by a 17% increase in earnings per share and a 15% rise in security subscriptions revenues," said Gil Shwed, Check Point's founder and CEO. "We achieved total revenues near the top of our forecast range, with earnings per share hitting the peak. In the past 60 days, we’ve successfully completed three acquisitions, underscoring our security platform leadership. The acquisition of Perimeter 81 has provided us a single-vendor secure access service edge (SASE) solution that delivers twice the speed of competitive solutions while ensuring industry-leading, prevention-first security.”

2 Check Point Employees Killed

Shwed described the Hamas attacks three weeks ago as "very terrible." Two Check Point employees were killed on the first day of the war. In addition, about 5% of Check Point's global workforce, or about 300 workers, have been called up to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reserves.

"We all know people who have suffered and we all know people who got murdered in this terror attack," he said.

Despite the attacks and ensuing war, over the past three weeks Check Point has been able to launch product, complete the Perimeter 81 acquisition, and support its customers and partners exactly as planned, Shwed said.

"All of that is due to the fact that we're much more accommodating to work in the hybrid manner with our operations around the world, and mainly due to our employees and their commitment to customers and partners," he said.

The Perimeter 81 acquisition, Check Point's 20th acquisition, allows the company to enter the $3.4 billion SASE market, and provides more than 3,000 new customers, Shwed said.

"I think it's a must for us to play and be strong in that market," he said.

Check Point Tracking Increase in Attacks Since the War Started

Since the start of the war, Check Point has tracked an 18% increase in cyberattacks in Israel, Shwed said. That includes a more than 52% increase in attacks on the government sector.

In addition, one out of every 19 organizations are attacked by ransomware weekly, he said. That's more than double the volume in October 2022.