Check Point Software Technologies is a pure-play cybersecurity vendor. The company offers solutions for network, endpoint, cloud, and mobile security in addition to security management. Check Point, a software specialist, sells to enterprises, businesses, and consumers. At the end of 2017, 47% of its revenue was from the Americas, 36% from Europe, and 17% from Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. The Tel Aviv, Israel based firm was founded in 1993 and has about 5,000 employees.
Brief Reports
Exponent (EXPO) – Brief Report
Exponent Inc is a United States- based company that provides engineering and scientific consulting services on a project-by-project basis. The company's consultant team is composed of scientists, physicians, engineers, as well as business and regulatory consultants. The company currently operates through two segments. The engineering and other scientific segments, which accounts for the majority of revenue, provides servicing encompassing biomechanics, biomedical engineering, buildings and structures, civil engineering, construction consulting, etc. The environmental and health segment covers chemical regulation and food safety, ecological and biological sciences, environmental and earth sciences, etc. The company generates almost all its revenue from America.
Paychex, Inc. (PAYX) – Brief Report
Paychex Inc competes in the payroll outsourcing industry. It is the second-largest player in terms of revenue and focuses on providing this service to small and midsize businesses. Paychex was created from the consolidation of 17 payroll processors in 1979 and services about 650,000 clients. The firm has almost 13,000 employees and is based in Rochester, New York.
VeriSign, Inc. (VRSN) – Brief Report
VeriSign is the sole authorized registry for several generic top-level domains, including the widely utilized .com and .net top-level domains. Additionally, the company operates two of the world's 13 root servers that are used to route Internet traffic. In 2018, the firm sold off its security services business, signaling a renewed focus on the core registry business. VeriSign generates about 60% of its sales from the United States.
Fastenal (FAST) – Brief Report
Fastenal opened its first fastener store in 1967 in Winona, Minnesota. Since then, Fastenal has greatly expanded its footprint as well as its products and services. Today, Fastenal serves its 400,000 active customers through approximately 2,200 stores, 950 on-site locations, and 14 distribution centers. Since 1993, the company has added other product categories, but fasteners remain its largest category at about 35% of sales. Fastenal also offers customers supply-chain solutions, such as vending and vendor-managed inventory.
Mettler-Toledo (MTD) – Brief Report
Mettler-Toledo supplies weighing and precision instruments to customers in the life sciences (50% of sales), industrial (42%), and food retail industries. Its products include laboratory and retail scales, pipettes, pH meters, thermal analysis equipment, titrators, metal detectors, and X-ray analyzers. Mettler leads the market for weighing instrumentation and controls more than 50% of the market for lab balances.
Booking Holdings, Inc. (BKNG) – Brief Report
Booking is the world’s largest online travel agency by revenue, offering booking services for hotel and vacation rooms, airline tickets, rental cars, restaurant reservations, cruises, experiences, and other vacation packages. The company operates a number of branded travel booking sites, including Priceline.com, Booking.com, Agoda, OpenTable, and Rentalcars.com, and has expanded into travel media with the acquisitions of Kayak and Momondo. Transaction fees for online bookings account for the bulk of revenue and profits.
Intuit, Inc. (INTU) – Brief Report
Intuit develops and markets well-known and trusted software products such as QuickBooks for small-business accounting, TurboTax for preparing personal tax returns, and Mint for managing personal finances. The firm is targeting the additional needs of small businesses with payroll and payment processing products in addition to growing its self-employed user base. Intuit was founded in 1983 and is based in Mountain View, California.
Rollins, Inc. (ROL) – Brief Report
Rollins Inc is a provider of pest and termite control services. Rollins offers pest control services and protection against termite damage, rodents, and insects to homes and businesses, including hotels, food service establishments, food manufacturers, retailers, and transportation companies. The company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries offer their services to residential and commercial customers in North America and Australia. In Central America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Asia, the Mediterranean, Europe, Africa, and Mexico, the company operates a franchise system.
Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) – Value-Creator or Value-Transferor?
by Shabbar Husain Kothari