Great time to buy Symantec

Article Excerpt

SYMANTEC CORP. $23 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 696.6 million; Market cap: $16.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; Dividend yield: 2.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.symantec.com) makes software that protects computers from viruses and intruders, including the popular Norton anti-virus program. It also sells products and services, such as e-mail filtering and data backup, to businesses. In July 2005, the company paid $13.2 billion for Veritas Software, whose software stores and protects information in large databases. The deal cut the company’s reliance on selling software to consumers and helped it compete with larger computer-services firms, like IBM. Big acquisition posed challenges However, the integration of Veritas did not proceed as smoothly as Symantec hoped. As a result, the company confused its customers with too many products and pricing structures. The recession also cut Symantec’s revenue by 2.7%, from $6.1 billion in 2009 to $6.0 billion in 2010 (fiscal years end March 31). However, revenue turned…