“As depicted in the chart, we have made significant progress within just one quarter, and I anticipate reaching this target in the next few months.”

In context

“Gil Shwed (Founder and CEO): Thank you, Tal, and hello, everyone. I hope everyone can see me clearly. I want to provide some insights into our performance during the quarter, the overall state of the industry, our observations in cybersecurity, and additional information about Check Point that Tal didn't cover. Let’s begin with the current state of cybersecurity, which I believe is also reflected in the financial markets. We are witnessing a continuous rise in cyber threats. As shown in the chart, we track the number of attacks targeting organizations globally every week, and there has been a 54% increase in those attacks. In the past quarter, one in 53 organizations faced ransomware attacks, which represents a 24% increase. Furthermore, we are observing an ongoing rise in more sophisticated attacks, what we refer to as fifth-generation cyber attacks, which is a concerning trend for all of us. Additionally, we are seeing Gen V attacks, specifically supply chain attacks, that infiltrate our systems through software components. Last quarter, the Log4j exploit emerged as one of the most damaging vulnerabilities we've encountered. This quarter, we faced a similar but slightly less severe issue with Spring4Shell, which targeted over 50% of corporate networks. Log4j was a component found in nearly every web server and web service, while Spring4Shell also affected one-third of corporate networks in less than a month. We are proud to say that Check Point's CloudGuard was the only solution to provide preemptive protection against these threats. Customers who implemented our Infinity architecture and the AI-based component in front of their web servers were shielded from attacks before they became widely recognized. This showcases our ability to effectively prevent attacks. Notably, President Joe Biden recently underscored the urgency to enhance domestic cybersecurity, emphasizing that vigilance today can lead to prevention or mitigation of future attacks. We strongly believe in prevention as the best strategy. I think the world has room to improve cybersecurity measures, and we are actively working to prevent the next significant attack. At Check Point, we are focused on managing advanced attacks and improving security through prevention and consolidation. Last quarter, we rolled out our five key initiatives for the year, and I believe we have made significant progress in each area. We have introduced a rebrand along with a new slogan reflecting our long-standing mission, "You deserve the best security." Our new go-to-market organization, Check Point Rockets, has launched innovative products like Quantum Light speed, and we are committed to growing our frontline sales team. I will provide an update on these initiatives in the following slides, as I believe we have accomplished a lot in the first quarter to support our goals. Many of you have seen our logo update, which has resonated well with audiences, alongside our message about the unique value of Check Point security. This differentiation is grounded not just in marketing but in the Check Point Infinity architecture, which integrates our network, cloud, user, and access security using advanced technologies to stop threats across all access points through our shared threat cloud that provides real-time threat prevention. Additionally, we have activated our new go-to-market organization under Rupal Hollenbeck, who brings a wealth of experience from her time as CMO at Oracle and her leadership of a $23 billion global data center sales organization at Intel. She has already made a positive impact, and we have relocated our headquarters to Silicon Valley, which we believe enhances our integration of sales and marketing and strengthens our relationships with partners across the ecosystem. We are focused on increasing our investment in the organization, particularly in building our sales team, aiming for a 25% growth rate soon. As depicted in the chart, we have made significant progress within just one quarter, and I anticipate reaching this target in the next few months. We have also continued hiring across other departments, particularly in R&D, where we have exceeded our growth targets despite challenging recruitment conditions globally. Although this has slightly increased our expense levels because we onboarded more personnel than anticipated, we are confident that this investment is essential for building the right foundation for our future. We also established the rocket organization to create tighter connections among R&D, sales, and marketing in specific growth areas, enhancing our agility and investment potential. Currently, this structure includes our cloud organization, the Harmony email segment, and the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) initiative, which I prefer to call Managed Prevention and Response, as we focus not just on detecting threats but on preventing them. We are optimistic about the progress of these initiatives and expect to see better results throughout the year. Overall, we are executing well across all our pillars and initiatives, which is reflected in the business momentum observed this quarter. While Tal presented the financials, we have enjoyed solid revenue growth over the last three quarters. As we previously noted, our performance in the APAC region has been strong, EMEA experienced a turnaround last year, and the U.S. is finally catching up with strong growth rates, which we're very proud of. Our new U.S. leadership has driven positive traction, and we hope this trend continues. A few examples highlight our progress: our Harmony email solution was adopted by a major government agency, quickly identifying 50,000 phishing attacks, leading to a switch from a previous vendor. Additionally, a large North American manufacturing firm found that Check Point's catch rate against zero-day malware was superior to their prior solution. These success stories demonstrate that our strength lies not in isolated capabilities but in our integrated Infinity architecture. A U.S. transportation client switched from Cisco and Fortinet to Check Point for our Quantum and Harmony solutions, noting our superior security and management. Furthermore, a European energy provider also transitioned to our products, highlighting that our security technology consistently stands out as the best choice. These are just a few successes among many, including significant deals with our established clients. In summary, we've had a very successful quarter, and I could not be more satisfied with the results. Our revenue and EPS metrics are at the high end of our expectations, and we have seen growth in all regions, particularly in the U.S. We achieved double-digit growth in product and subscription revenues, a key milestone. Despite facing global challenges, our market remains robust. I'm optimistic that our strategies will continue to yield positive results. As for projections, while there are always upsides and challenges, we had a strong start to the year, unlike in previous years when Q1 was usually slow. This year, we began impressively, and I hope this momentum will carry over into the rest of the year. For second-quarter projections, we expect revenues in the range of $545 million to $575 million, which is somewhat higher than analysts' models. Non-GAAP EPS is projected between $1.55 and $1.65, with GAAP EPS anticipated to be around $0.35 less. I remain optimistic but cautious not to raise expectations excessively. I hope that strong initial results will flow into our continued business growth, revenues, and EPS metrics. Thank you very much, and I'm happy to open the floor to your questions or, Tal, if you have any insights before we move to the Q&A regarding projections.”