A takeover of NortonLifeLock looks more likely

Article Excerpt

NORTONLIFELOCK INC. $21 is a buy. The company (Nasdaq symbol NLOK; Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 581.9 million; Market cap: $12.2 billion; Dividend yield: 2.4%; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.nortonlifelock.com) is the newly renamed Symantec following the sale of its Enterprise Security business to Broadcom (Nasdaq symbol AVGO) for $10.7 billion. NortonLifeLock is now focused on expanding its consumer business to lift investor returns. Those operations make and sell computer antivirus and email-filtering software for individuals. At the same time, its LifeLock business sells identity-theft protection for individual consumers. Rival McAfee (Nasdaq symbol MCFE) may be planning to launch a takeover offer for NortonLifeLock. A formal bid would likely come after McAfee completes the sale of its corporate cybersecurity unit for $4 billion. Meantime, NortonLifeLock has continued to attract takeover interest from a number of other parties, not just rival McAfee. The involvement of activist investors Starboard Value, with a 7% stake in the company and a board seat, as well as plus private-equity firms Bain Capital and…