The smaller they stand, the faster they rise -- or at least that has been the pattern among security software stocks over the last year or so.
So it stands to reason that Check Point Software Technologies
Check Point's sales rose 15% year-over-year to $281 million and non-GAAP earnings jumped 16% to $0.64 per share. It's hard to say whether these increases are a sign of larger or smaller market share for Check Point, as chief rivals Fortinet
Fellow Fool Rick Munarriz sees Check Point as a "no-brainer acquisition target," even with a market cap north of $10 billion. Security solutions are a very big deal nowadays and only getting bigger, so that makes plenty of sense for a deep-pocketed technology giant without a horse in the security race.
Cisco Systems
And this quarter's high-quality results did nothing to hurt Check Point's chances of finding a buyer. I'm slapping a short-term "outperform" tag on Check Point in CAPS, in order to capture the buyout potential and generally strong business trends. Click here to play along!