By Tova Cohen
TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Network security provider Check Point Software Technologies (O:CHKP) 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 (N:VMW) 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.