High R&D will boost Gen Digital

Article Excerpt

GEN DIGITAL INC. $25 is a buy. The company (Nasdaq symbol GEN; High-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares o/s: 626.1 million; Market cap: $15.7 billion; Dividend yield: 2.0%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Average; www.gendigital.com) owns several security-related consumer brands, including Norton, LifeLock, and Avast, in addition to Avira, AVG, and CCleaner. The company last raised your quarterly dividend by 66.7% in December 2019. The annual rate of $0.50 a share yields 2.0%. Gen’s board has also approved a $3 billion share repurchase authorization program. Note, Gen continues to spend a high 8% of its revenue on research. That lets it develop new products to spur its long-term growth. For example, it recently launched a new AI-powered mobile application and web-based service (called Norton Genie) that aims to provide a way to check if texts, emails, websites and social media posts are a scam. The company probably will earn $2.20 a share in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, and the stock trades at a low 11.4…