Fidelity cuts Check Point holding

Immediately after Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP) rival Palo Alto Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: PANW) held its very successful IPO, a debate opened up on whether investment institutions would sell their holdings in Check Point and buy shares in Palo Alto instead. At the time, Check Point chairman and CEO Gil Shwed sought to bolster investment institutions' confidence in his company, asserting that Check Point and Palo Alto "were not competing for the same dollars."

Shwed may be right, but meanwhile one big investment institution has chosen to sell a substantial part of its holding in Check Point over the past few months, possibly causing the negative momentum in the share price since the beginning of the year. Monitoring by "Globes" of transactions by parties at interest found that Fidelity Funds (FMR LLC) has reduced its holding in Check Point from 10.9% at the end of 2011to 5%. In other words, FMR has more than halved its stake, selling Check Point shares to the tune of about $500 million. FMR became a party at interest in Check Point in 2009. Check Point's market cap has doubled since then, and FMR may simply be taking a handsome profit.

Check Point's share price has fallen 12% since the beginning of the year, while Nasdaq has risen 15%. Check Point's current market cap is $9.5 billion.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 11, 2012