Updating Your High-Growth Payers: NortonLifeLock Inc.

Article Excerpt

NORTONLIFELOCK INC. $26 is a buy. The company (Nasdaq symbol NLOK; High-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 581.8 million; Market cap: $14.5 billion; Dividend yield: 1.9%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Average; www.nortonlifelock.com) has two main businesses: Norton computer antivirus software for individuals; and LifeLock identity-theft protection. The company last raised its quarterly dividend by 7.0% with the December 2019 payment, to $0.125 a share from $0.075. The new annual rate of $0.50 yields 1.9%. In the fiscal 2022 second quarter, ended October 1, 2021, revenue rose 10.5% to $692 million from $622 million a year earlier. That was due to a 12.6% increase in the average number of users as well as higher average revenue per user. Excluding one-time items, earnings rose 18.6%, to $255 million from $215 million; per-share earnings increased at a faster rate of 19.4%, to $0.43 from $0.36, on fewer shares outstanding. In August 2021, NortonLifeLock agreed to acquire Avast PLC (symbol AVTTY on the U.S. over-the-counter market) for $8 billion in…