These tech leaders tap areas of high growth

Article Excerpt

SYMANTEC CORP. $27 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; High Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 623.4 million; Market cap: $16.8 billion; Dividend yield: 1.1%; www.symantec.com; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Average) sells computer-security technology, including antivirus and email-filtering software, to both businesses and consumers. The company paid a $4.00-a-share special dividend in March 2016. Shareholders currently receive a regular quarterly dividend of $0.075 a share. The annual rate is $0.30 and yields 1.1%. In 2016, Symantec made a few notable acquisitions. It paid $2.3 billion for LifeLock Inc. (New York symbol LOCK) and it also completed the purchase of privately held Blue Coat for $4.65 billion. LifeLock Inc. sells identity-theft protection services to 4.4 million subscribers. Symantec sees LifeLock as a way to boost its lagging consumer security business. Blue Coat makes products to protect clients from cyberattacks through their websites and networks. Blue Coat has also emerged as a leader in security for cloud computing, and serves over 15,000 businesses. Moreover, Blue Coat’s chief executive…