Symantec is a bargain

Article Excerpt

SYMANTEC CORP. $25.03 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (408-517- 8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 682.4 million; Market cap: $17.1 billion; Dividend yield: 2.4%) earned $0.43 a share in the three months ended April 3, 2015, down from $0.48 a year earlier. However, the decline was partly because the company is hiring more programmers to expand its cybersecurity operations. Symantec still plans to split into two publicly traded firms. One will keep the Symantec name and focus on antivirus and security software and services. The other, called Veritas Technologies, will consist of the company’s information-management operations, which make products for data backup and recovery. Symantec aims to complete the breakup by the end of 2015. Meanwhile, the stock trades at just 13.5 times this year’s forecast earnings. Symantec is a buy. buy…