symantec

DIAGEO PLC ADRs, $93.40, New York symbol DEO, is the world’s largest premium alcoholic beverage company. Its major brands include Guinness stout, Smirnoff vodka, Johnnie Walker scotch whisky, Captain Morgan rum and Bailey’s Irish Cream. This week, Diageo agreed to buy the rights to Ypioca, a popular brand of cachaca in Brazil. Cachaca is a liquor that is made from sugar-cane juice. Diageo is paying roughly 300 million British pounds for this business (1 British pound = $1.60 Canadian). To put that in context, the company earned 953 million pounds, or 1.53 pounds per ADR, in the six months ended December 31, 2011. (Each American Depositary Receipt represents four Diageo common shares.)...

CHESAPEAKE ENERGY CORP., $15.58, symbol CHK on New York, has attracted the interest of activist investor Carl Icahn, who has purchased 7.6% of the natural gas producer. Mr. Icahn now aims to replace four of Chesapeake’s nine directors with his own nominees. The stock is down nearly 50% in the past year. That’s largely because rising production of shale gas and record-warm winter temperatures have increased gas supplies and depressed prices. The stock has also suffered in the past month on allegations that Aubrey K. McClendon, the company’s co-founder, CEO and chairman, took out loans that could put him in a conflict of interest. In response, Chesapeake’s board of directors has removed McClendon from his position and will soon replace him with an independent chairman....

ACI WORLDWIDE $40.01 (Nasdaq symbol ACIW; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (402-334-5101; www.tsainc.com; Shares outstanding: 39.8 million; Market cap: $1.6 billion; No dividends paid) makes software that is used to process transactions involving credit cards, debit cards, automated teller machines, point-of-sale terminals and interbank payments. In mid-February 2012, ACI completed its purchase of S1 Corp. for $540 million in cash and stock. This acquisition is a good fit: S1 sells transaction software for banks, credit unions, retailers and other payment processors. It has over 3,000 clients worldwide. In the first quarter of 2012, ACI’s revenue rose 31.6%, to $137.6 million from $104.5 million a year earlier. The gain was largely due to S1’s $22.5-million contribution. Without acquisition-related costs, earnings per share rose sharply, to $0.28 from $0.05....

SYMANTEC CORP. $15.03 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (1-408-517-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 729.4 million; Market cap: $11.0 billion; No dividends paid) makes computersecurity software, including the popular Norton antivirus program. It also sells products and services for email filtering, data backup and other business-related uses. In addition, Symantec offers data-archiving software that helps its clients meet increasingly strict regulatory and compliance standards.

In the three months ended March 31, 2012, Symantec’s earnings per share excluding one-time items were unchanged at $0.38. That matched the consensus estimate. Sales rose slightly, to $1.68 billion from $1.67 billion. The company gets 52% of its sales from outside North America.

The main reason for the flat results was that the company is selling more of its products as ongoing subscriptions instead of one-time purchases. That gives Symantec steadier revenue streams but lower upfront sales. Sales of data-storage products are also down, mainly because the company completed several big contracts in the year-earlier quarter.

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SYMANTEC CORP., $16.48, Nasdaq symbol SYMC, sells computer security technology, including anti-virus and Internet and email filtering software, to businesses and consumers. The stock fell 9% this week after Symantec cut its earnings and revenue estimates for its fiscal 2012 fourth quarter, which ended March 30, 2012. The company believes it earned $0.38 a share in the quarter, down from its previous forecast of $0.41 to $0.42. These figures exclude unusual items, such as a gain on the sale of its 49% stake in a joint venture that sells computer-security and data-storage products to businesses in China....

SHERRITT INTERNATIONAL CORP., $5.70, symbol S on Toronto, reports that its revenue fell 2.6% in the three months ended March 31, 2012, to $462.2 million from $474.5 million a year earlier. Lower nickel prices were the main reason for the decline. Cash flow fell 17.0%, to $117 million, or $0.40 a share, from $141 million, or $0.48 a share. That was due to the lower revenue and higher production costs. The company’s long-term debt of $1.7 billion is equal to its market cap. However, it holds cash of $592.9 million, or $2.00 a share....

TENNANT CO. $42 (www.tennantco.com) continues to see strong demand for its ec-H2O floor-scrubbing machine, which uses electricity to make tap water act like a detergent. That eliminates the need for soaps and cleaning agents, and lowers the machine’s operating costs. However, overall sales fell 0.6% in the first quarter of 2012, to $172.6 million from $173.7 million a year earlier, due to weaker demand in Europe. Earnings per share fell 6.7%, to $0.28 from $0.30. Hold. SYMANTEC CORP. $16 (www.symantec.com) has paid an undisclosed sum for Nukona Inc., whose software lets companies apply security policies to employee-owned computers and smartphones while leaving personal activities untouched. This technology nicely complements Symantec’s other data-security products. Hold. NORDSTROM INC. $55 (www.nordstrom.com) has raised its quarterly dividend by 17.4%, to $0.27 a share from $0.23. The new annual rate of $1.08 yields 2.0%. Buy.

VITERRA INC., $15.91, symbol VT on Toronto, has agreed to a friendly takeover offer from Switzerland-based commodity trader Glencore International plc. The purchase price is $6.1 billion, or $16.25 per Viterra share. As part of the deal, Glencore will sell a number of Viterra’s assets, including about 90% of its Canadian fertilizer retail stores and all of its Australian outlets, along with Viterra’s 34% stake in a fertilizer plant in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Agrium (symbol AGU on Toronto) has agreed to buy all of these assets. Agrium is a recommendation of our Successful Investor newsletter....

These two leading software makers have each gained about 20% since the start of 2012. However, the slowing European economy could limit their progress. SYMANTEC CORP. $18 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 729.4 million; Market cap: $13.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.symantec.com) sells anti-virus and email filtering software to businesses and consumers. In its fiscal 2012 third quarter, which ended December 30, 2011, Symantec’s earnings rose 15.4%, to $314 million from $272 million a year earlier. Earnings per share gained 20.0%, to $0.42 from $0.35, on fewer shares outstanding. These figures exclude asset writedowns and costs to integrate acquisitions....

SYMANTEC CORP. $18 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 729.4 million; Market cap: $13.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.symantec.com) sells anti-virus and email filtering software to businesses and consumers.

In its fiscal 2012 third quarter, which ended December 30, 2011, Symantec’s earnings rose 15.4%, to $314 million from $272 million a year earlier. Earnings per share gained 20.0%, to $0.42 from $0.35, on fewer shares outstanding. These figures exclude asset writedowns and costs to integrate acquisitions.

Sales rose 6.9%, to $1.7 billion from $1.6 billion. Symantec gets 52% of its sales from overseas. If you disregard the positive impact of exchange rates, sales would have risen 6% in the quarter.

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