Symantec Profit Tops Estimate

(RTTNews) - Security software maker Symantec Corp. (SYMC) said Wednesday after the markets closed that its second quarter profit rose 1% from last year, as better cost and expenses control helped offset a slight decrease in revenue.

The company's quarterly earnings per share, excluding items, also came in above analysts' expectations and its quarterly revenue met analysts' forecast. However, the company gave a downbeat outlook for the current quarter.

Michael Brown, Symantec president and CEO, said, "Symantec delivered solid results this quarter that demonstrate the underlying strengths of our security and information management businesses. We are pleased with the growth we achieved in enterprise endpoint security and data loss prevention. Strong performance in our NetBackup appliances accelerated from 35% year-over-year growth in the June quarter to 45% in the September quarter."

Symantec shares are currently losing 0.64% in after hours trading after closing the day's regular trading session at $25.18, up 19 cents. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $17.95 to $25.35.

Last month, Symantec announced a plan to separate the company into two, independent publicly traded companies: one business focused on security and one business focused on information management. The company expects to complete the spinoff by the end of December 2015.

Symantec is the third major technology company after Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and EBay, Inc. (EBAY) to announce plans to split up lately.

For the second quarter ended October 3, 2014, Mountain View, California-based Symantec reported net income of $244 million or $0.35 per share, compared to $241 million or $0.34 per share for the year-ago quarter.

Excluding items, adjusted net income for the second quarter was $332 million or $0.48 per share, compared to $359 million or $0.51 per share in the prior year quarter.

On average, 27 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.43 per share for the second quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Operating margin for the quarter improved to 21.5% from 15.1% a year ago, while adjusted operating margin increased to 28.7% from 27.5% last year.

The maker of Norton anti-virus software said revenue for the second quarter fell 1% to $1.62 billion from $1.64 billion in the same quarter last year. Twenty-four analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.62 billion for the second quarter.

Symantec declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.15 per share, payable on December 17 to all shareholders of record on November 24.

Looking forward to the third quarter, the company forecasts revenue of $1.65 billion to $1.69 billion, earnings of $0.31 to $0.34 per share and adjusted earnings of $0.47 to $0.50 per share. Analysts currently expect the company to earn $0.50 per share on revenue of $1.70 billion for the third quarter.

For the fiscal year 2015, the company now expects revenue of $6.60 billion to $6.68 billion, earnings of $1.31 to $1.36 per share and adjusted earnings of $1.88 to $1.93 per share. Previously, the company forecast revenue of $6.63 to $6.77 billion, earnings of $1.43 to $1.51 per share and adjusted earnings of $1.84 to $1.92 per share. Analysts currently expect the company to earn $1.88 per share on revenue of $6.71 billion for the fiscal year 2015.

The latest quarterly and annual forecasts are based on currently anticipated foreign exchange rates. The company said it is on track to achieve its fiscal year revenue target at the original guided exchange rate.