symantec

SYMANTEC CORP. $18.71 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; SI Rating: Average) (1-408-517-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 810.6 million; Market cap: $15.2 billion; No dividends paid) makes software that protects computers from viruses and electronic attacks. The popular Norton anti-virus program is its best-known product. In the three months ended October 2, 2009, Symantec earned $294 million, or $0.36 a share. That’s down 5.8% from $312 million, or $0.37 a share, a year earlier. These figures exclude non-recurring items, such as the cost of integrating companies Symantec bought, and writedowns of buildings it plans to sell. Despite the drop, the latest earnings beat the $0.33 a share that analysts were expecting. That was entirely because of the company’s cost cuts, as its revenue fell 2.9%, to $1.47 billion from $1.52 billion....

WESTJET AIRLINES, $13.20, symbol WJA on Toronto, is our Stock of the Year for 2010. Next week, Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that focuses on the U.S. stock markets, will reveal its #1 pick for 2010. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to profit. If you’re not already a Wall Street Stock Forecaster subscriber, click here to learn how you can get one month free when you subscribe today. WestJet serves 67 destinations in North America and the Caribbean. The company operates a fleet of 86 Boeing Next-Generation 737s. These planes feature more legroom, leather seats and television screens built into the back of each seat. But most important, the Next-Generation Boeing 737 is roughly 30% more fuel efficient than older planes. And WestJet will receive 49 additional 737s through 2016....

H&R BLOCK INC. $21 (New York symbol HRB; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 335.5 million; Market cap: $7.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 2.9%; WSSF Rating: Above Average) is best known for its income-tax preparation business, but it also sells accounting services to businesses through wholly owned RSM McGladrey. This subsidiary recently ended a legal dispute with auditing firm McGladrey & Pullen LLP. The companies also renewed their alliance until 2015. Ending the alliance would have been difficult, since both firms share employees and office space. They also serve many of the same clients. H&R Block is a buy. TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC. $26 (New York symbol TXN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.3 billion; Market cap: $33.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.3; Dividend yield: 1.8%; WSSF Rating: Average) is seeing stronger demand for its chips, but is having trouble filling new orders. Still, the company expects that its revenue will range between $2.9 billion and $3.02 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009. That’s slightly better than its earlier forecast of $2.78 billion to $3.02 billion. As well, Texas Instruments expects its per-share earnings for the quarter to range from $0.47 to $0.51. That’s up from its previous estimate of $0.42 to $0.50....

MOTOROLA INC., $8.57, New York symbol MOT, rose 5% this week after it reported better-than-expected earnings. The company also launched two new smartphones. In the three months ended October 3, 2009, Motorola earned $12 million, or $0.01 a share. If you exclude unusual items, it would have earned $0.02 a share. Analysts had expected the company to break even. In the year-earlier quarter, Motorola lost $397 million, or $0.18 a share. Among the unusual items the company recognized in the quarter were costs related to its plan to break itself into two publicly traded companies — the mobile-devices business, and the wireless-infrastructure and home-equipment operations. Motorola lowered its costs during the quarter, including an 8% cut in its workforce and the closure of some plants; these were the main reasons for the improved earnings. Motorola feels that these reductions will save it $1.9 billion in 2009. That’s up $100 million from its previous estimate....

GARMIN LTD., $30.26, symbol GRMN on Nasdaq, fell over 20% this week after Dutch-based rival TomTom reported that average selling prices for its devices were 8% lower than analysts were expecting in its latest quarter. Like TomTom, Garmin makes navigation devices that use the global positioning system (GPS). The company reports its results next week. Also this week, Motorola and Verizon Wireless announced the first smartphone to feature Google’s Android 2.0 operating system for mobile devices. The new phone will allow users to access Google Maps Navigation, which provides turn-by-turn voice guidance as a free feature of Google Maps. The phone will also offer additional features, such as live traffic and business information, and Google Street View, which shows users photographs of the streets they look up....

SYMANTEC CORP. $15.22 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; SI Rating: Average) (1-408-517-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 814.5 million; Market cap: $12.4 billion) makes software that protects computers from viruses and electronic attacks. The popular Norton anti-virus program is its best-known product. In the three months ended July 3, 2009, Symantec earned $73 million, or $0.09 a share. That’s down 57.6% from $172 million, or $0.20 a share, a year earlier. If you exclude unusual items, including writedowns of securities and gains on the sale of assets, per-share earnings fell 15.0%, to $0.34 from $0.40. That fell just short of the $0.35 a share that analysts were expecting. As well, the company continues to spend around 15% of its revenue on research, so it’s more profitable than it looks. Revenue fell 13.2%, to $1.43 billion from $1.65 billion. Analysts were expecting $1.49 billion. The recession has prompted businesses to put off investments in computer software and storage products. However, Symantec was able to partly offset this by launching several new consumer products during the quarter. These helped it sell more of its Norton antivirus and Internet-protection software to individuals....

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP., $117.93, New York symbol IBM, announced this week that it will buy SPSS Inc. (Nasdaq symbol SPSS). Chicago-based SPSS makes software that analyzes sales and other data. This helps its clients predict how their customers will react to such things as price changes and new advertising campaigns. IBM will pay $1.2 billion for SPSS when the deal closes later this year. To put the purchase price in context, IBM earned $3.1 billion, or $2.32 a share, in the three months ended June 30, 2009. That’s up 12.2% from $2.8 billion, or $1.97 a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 13.3%, to $23.25 billion from $26.8 billion. IBM gets 65% of its revenue from overseas markets, and the high U.S. dollar hurts the value of their contribution. However, IBM gets roughly 80% of its revenue from selling computer services and software. These generate higher profit margins than computer hardware. That’s why its earnings rose despite the lower revenue....

RDM CORP., $1.05, symbol RC on Toronto, reports that its revenue rose 13.4% in the three months ended June 30, 2009, to $5.9 million from $5.2 million a year earlier. The company earned $175,000, or $0.01 a share, compared to a loss of $298,000, or $0.01 a share. RDM sells software and hardware for electronic-payment processing, mainly in the United States. Its Image & Transaction Management System lets banks scan all types of cheques, and then route them to any location for immediate processing. The company benefits from the recurring nature of its payment-processing-services revenue. In the latest quarter, this jumped 47%, to $2.5 million from $1.7 million a year earlier. Transaction volumes for RDM’s Image & Transaction Management System averaged 3.8 million items per week, up 36% from 2.8 million....

ATLANTIC TELE-NETWORK, $38.46, symbol ATNI on Nasdaq, jumped 50% this week after it announced plans to buy more than 800,000 wireless accounts from Verizon Wireless for $200 million in cash. The subscribers are mostly in rural areas of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, Ohio and Idaho. Verizon had to sell these accounts as part of the regulatory approval for its recent purchase of Alltel. Competition regulators still need to approve the deal, but it should close by the end of this year. Atlantic is paying just $250 per subscriber. That’s much less than the $1,567 per subscriber that AT&T paid when it bought wireless accounts from Verizon last month. (AT&T’s purchase was also related to the Alltel acquisition.)...

GENERAL MILLS INC., $54.92, New York symbol GIS, rose 4% this week after the company announced that it expects to report earnings of $3.87 to $3.89 a share in its latest fiscal year, which ended May 31, 2009. That’s slightly higher than its previous forecast of $3.78 to $3.83. These figures exclude unusual items, mainly gains and losses on hedging contracts that General Mills uses to lock in prices for wheat, corn and other raw materials. General Mills is the second-largest cereal maker in the United States, after Kellogg. It also makes other foods, including yogurt, baking mixes and canned and frozen vegetables. The company raised its selling prices last year in response to rising raw-material costs. These costs have since stabilized, so General Mills will now look to new products to increase its sales instead of relying on higher prices. For example, the company continues to develop healthier versions of its foods, such as low-sodium soups and gluten-free cereals for people who can’t digest wheat. This shift in focus was the main reason for the higher earnings forecast....