Cost cuts boost profits

Article Excerpt

SYMANTEC CORP. $20.54 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (1-408- 517-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 696.0 million; Market cap: $14.3 billion; Dividend yield: 2.9%) earned $0.51 a share in its fiscal 2014 third quarter, which ended December 27, 2013, up from $0.45 a year earlier. The gains were mainly due to savings from a new restructuring plan that includes laying off 30% to 40% of its managers and simplifying its product lines. Revenue fell 4.8%, $1.7 billion from $1.8 billion. That’s mainly because the company is retraining its sales staff as part of its restructuring, and that disrupted their closing of new deals. Even so, the latest revenue beat the consensus forecast of $1.66 billion. The company continues to spend a high 15% of its revenue on research, which hurts its current earnings but will help it develop profitable new products. Symantec is still a buy. buy…