Buy Symantec, hold on to ACI Worldwide

Article Excerpt

SYMANTEC CORP. $22.70 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (1-408-517-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 696.6 million; Market cap: $15.8 billion; Dividend yield: 2.6%) sells computer security technology, including anti-virus and emailfiltering software, to businesses and consumers. It also offers data-archiving software. In its fiscal 2013 third quarter, which ended March 29, 2013, Symantec’s earnings per share rose 15.8%, to $0.44 from $0.38 a year earlier. Revenue gained 4.4%, to $1.75 billion from $1.68 billion. The company is poised to keep reporting higher earnings as its new restructuring plan takes effect. Under this initiative, Symantec is laying off 30% to 40% of its managers and streamlining its product lines. This should increase its gross profit margin (gross profits as a percentage of revenue) from 25.7% in fiscal 2013 to at least 30% in fiscal 2015. In addition, Symantec currently spends about 15% of its revenue on research, and the plan should free up additional cash for this purpose. This spending hurts the…