Here’s our Pick of the Month

Article Excerpt

SYMANTEC CORP. $24.10 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (650-527-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 680.7 million; Market cap: $16.1 billion; Dividend yield: 2.5%) continues to strengthen its fast-growing cybersecurity business while getting set to split off its Veritas Technologies division. Corporations are spending more on cybersecurity following highprofile attacks on Sony, Home Depot and Target. Symantec is taking advantage of this trend by hiring more programmers. It has also cancelled unprofitable contracts and simplified its product lines. These moves cut the company’s profits by 10.2% in its fiscal 2015 fourth quarter, which ended April 3, 2015, to $299 million, or $0.43 a share, from $333 million, or $0.48. Sales fell 6.2%, to $1.55 billion from $1.65 billion—though if you disregard the U.S. dollar’s negative impact on Symantec’s overseas sales, its revenue rose 1%. The company spends a very high 19% of its sales on research; that’s keeping it at the forefront of new cybersecurity trends, including the need for mobile-device security,…