SYMANTEC CORP. $20.71 - Nasdaq symbol SYMC

SYMANTEC CORP. $20.71 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (1-408-517-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 693.9 million; Market cap: $14.4 billion; No dividends paid) sells computer-security technology, including anti-virus and email-filtering software, to businesses and consumers. It also offers data-archiving software that helps its clients meet increasingly strict regulatory and compliance standards.

In the three months ended September 28, 2012, Symantec’s revenue rose 1.0%, $1.70 billion from $1.68 billion a year earlier. The company gets 51% of its sales from overseas. Without the positive impact of exchange rates, revenue would have risen 5% in the latest quarter.

Successful cost cutting pushed up Symantec’s earnings per share by 15.4%, to $0.45 from $0.39, excluding one-time items.

The company is selling more of its products to businesses, partly because it is now offering its salespeople higher incentives for bringing in new contracts than for renewals. Sales of anti-virus software to consumers fell 0.6%, but demand should pick up as more consumers upgrade their computers after the launch of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system.

However, the weak U.S. and European economies will continue to weigh on short-term sales growth.

Symantec is a hold.

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