Topic: Growth Stocks

SYMANTEC CORP. $22 – Nasdaq symbol SYMC

SYMANTEC CORP. $22 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 691.7 million; Market cap: $15.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.symantec.com) sells antivirus software and other computer security services.

In Symantec’s fiscal 2014 fourth quarter, which ended March 28, 2014, its earnings rose 4.1%, to $329 million from $316 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings rose 6.8%, to $0.47 from $0.44, on fewer shares outstanding.

The gains were mainly due to savings from a new restructuring plan that includes job cuts and simplifying the company’s product lines. Revenue fell 5.6%, to $1.65 billion from $1.75 billion.

The company now expects to earn $1.84 to $1.92 a share for all of fiscal 2015. The stock trades at just 11.7 times the midpoint of that range, mainly due to investor uncertainty after Symantec fired its CEO over the slow progress of its restructuring.

Symantec continues to spend a high 17% of its revenue on research, which helps it adapt to rapidly changing technologies. In addition to preventing viruses and other attacks, it is also working on products that help clients recover data from infected computers. That should help spur its revenue growth.

Higher revenue will help the company increase its gross profit margin (gross profits as a percentage of revenue) from 27.5% in the latest quarter to at least 30% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015.

Symantec is a buy.

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