Topic: Growth Stocks

Stock Pickers Digest Hotline – Friday, October 10, 2014

Article Excerpt

SYMANTEC CORP., $21.94, symbol SYMC on Nasdaq, plans to break itself into two publicly traded companies. One will keep the Symantec name and focus on antivirus and security software and services. This business had $4.2 billion of revenue in Symantec’s 2014 fiscal year, which ended March 28, 2014. The other company will consist of Symantec’s information management (IM) operations, which include data backup and recovery software. It had $2.5 billion of revenue in fiscal 2014. Symantec will hand out shares in the IM business as a tax-deferred dividend. It expects to complete the spinoff by the end of 2015. The IM division faces strong competition from larger firms, including Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Spinning it off will let Symantec focus on products with greater potential, such as security software for mobile devices. The security software and IM businesses could also become attractive takeover targets as independent companies. Symantec is still a buy. Symantec was recently covered in the Stock Pickers Digest Hotline for October 3, 2014. Click…