SYMC looks to the cloud

Article Excerpt

SYMANTEC CORP. $28.30 (Nasdaq symbol SYMC; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (650- 527-8000; www.symantec.com; Shares outstanding: 608.2 million; Market cap: $17.2 billion; Dividend yield: 1.1%) sells computersecurity technology, including antivirus and email-filtering software, to businesses and consumers. Symantec’s earnings per share rose 13.8% in the three months ended June 30, 2017, to $0.33 from $0.29. Revenue in the quarter rose 38.9%, to $1.23 billion from $884 million. Acquisitions— including the purchase of LifeLock Inc. for $2.3 billion—drove the gains. Symantec has also begun to sell some of its operations to better focus on its cloud-security business. For example, it just sold its websitesecurity- certificate business to DigiCert Inc. for $950 million in cash and a 30% stake in DigiCert. That company is a Utah-based webcertification firm backed by private-equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC. Symantec is a top pick for 2017. 2017…