Symantec Reports Improved Revenue, Lower Profit Margin

In its fiscal third-quarter earnings report on Jan. 26, data protection provider Symantec had some good news and some not-so-good news: It reported a 4 percent increase in its overall revenue but also that its profit margin slipped 56 percent from a year ago.
Nonetheless, the company’s quarterly earnings per share (17 cents) exceeded Wall Street analysts’ expectations.
Symantec attributed the profit percentage decrease to higher operational costs due to recent acquisitions.
In the quarter, the company’s VeriSign security acquisition generated revenue of $48 million and the PGP and GuardianEdge acquisitions generated total revenue of $18 million.
The diversified Mountain View, Calif.-based company reported net income for its third quarter ended Dec. 31 of $132 million, compared with $301 million for the same quarter in 2010.
Consolidated GAAP (Generally Accepting Accounting Principles) revenue for the fiscal third quarter was $1.604 billion, up 4 percent year over year-5 percent after adjusting for currency exchanges.
In the quarter, Symantec’s consumer segment represented 31 percent of total revenue and increased 4 percent year over year. Its security and compliance segment represented 26 percent of total revenue and increased 13 percent year over year.
Symantec’s storage and server management businesses represented 37 percent of total revenue and increased 1 percent year over year. Services, which have been a concern in recent months, represented 6 percent of total revenue and declined 17 percent year over year.
Symantec also said that it will undertake a $1 billion stock repurchase initiative. During the third quarter of fiscal year 2011, the company repurchased about 16 million shares for $265 million at an average price of $17.03. Symantec has $1.06 billion remaining in the stock repurchase program.
Symantec’s stock price was up about 2.5 percent in after-hours trading to $18.25 following the report.