Topic: Growth Stocks

The Stock Pickers Digest Hotline – Friday, January 25, 2008

Article Excerpt

SYMANTEC, $16.38, symbol SYMC on Nasdaq, rose more than 10% this week after it reported that earnings excluding one-time items rose 16.3% in the three months ended December 31, 2007, to $291.7 million from $250.8 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 26.9%, to $0.33 from $0.26 on 9% fewer shares outstanding. Excluding the impact of acquisitions, revenues rose 15.3% to $1.53 billion from $1.32 billion. In the latest quarter, earnings gained from strong sales in Europe and Asia, and from the success of its Norton 360 AntiVirus software, which now accounts for 25% of its consumer sales. Symantec’s consumer business, which represents 29% of the company’s total revenues, grew 8%. Revenues from Symantec’s services business (6% of revenues) grew 40%. Security and data management sales (29% of revenues) grew 9%, and data center management sales (29% of revenues) rose 11%. In April 2007, Symantec acquired Altiris (management software) for $830 million. In December 2007, it bought Vontu (data loss prevention…