Why Check Point Software Popped

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Check Point Software (Nasdaq: CHKP  ) popped by upwards of 11% after the company announced earnings and boosted its share-repurchase program.

So what: Second-quarter revenue rose 9% to $328.6 million, with net income of $150 million, or $0.71 per share. CEO Gil Shwed said the company's security appliances continue to gain traction and enterprise appliance units were up 20%. The company repurchased 1.4 million shares during the quarter for a total of $75 million.

Now what: The company also announced that its board has authorized the expansion of its repurchase program, up to a total authorization of $1 billion over the next two years. Since Check Point launched its repurchase program in 2003, it has bought back 87.5 million shares for a total of $2.2 billion. The results are a welcome relief and suggest that recent pessimism over IT spending may be misplaced. Storage specialist EMC also reaffirmed its full-year guidance last night, so the IT sector doesn't seem so bad after all.

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