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Symantec Corp. on Wednesday reported first-quarter earnings of $0.41 per share on revenue of $391 million, a strong increase compared to the same year-ago period. In the first quarter of 2003, Symantec posted earnings of $0.36 per share on revenue of $316 million.
Symantecs current fiscal year began March 29.
A good portion of the increased earnings can be attributed to the companys increased focus on the enterprise market. That portion of Symantecs business accounted for 42 percent of its total revenue, nearly matching the 43 percent that came from the consumer market. Symantec, based in Cupertino, Calif., historically has been a consumer-focused company, but its recent decision to move more heavily into the enterprise market has apparently started to pay off.
The second quarter was a busy one for Symantec, which released several new and updated products during the last three months. Among the major releases were the introduction of Vulnerability Assessment, ManHunt 3.0 and Incident Manager 2.0 and Decoy Server.
The company also changed its guidance for the remainder of the fiscal year. It now expects to book revenue of $1.6 billion and post earnings of $1.82 for 2004. The revised earnings forecast is up $0.07 from Symantecs previous estimates.
Symantec officials said the quarters results were quite good, given the difficult economic climate.
“We continue to see strong performance across all segments of our business around the world, despite the difficult economic environment,” said CEO John Thompson.