Symantec’s Third Consecutive Earnings Beat

Symantec Corp. (SYMC) had a great first quarter, beating the consensus by a nickel to post earnings per share of $.40 on revenue of $1.66 billion and moved up its outlook a bit. It’s something to take notice of because it’s the third consecutive quarter that the antivirus and internet security company has surpassed Street expectations, especially since there hasn’t been much appreciation for the name from the time that Symantec and Veritas announced their plans for a merger. The ability for Symantec to cross-sell and up-sell the breadth of our product portfolio was a major part of the earnings strength. Symantec signed 336 agreements worldwide versus 249 in the same period a year ago with a contract value of more than $300,000 each. According to the release, of the 336 agreements, 85 had a value of more than $1 million each versus 48 in the same period a year ago. Trading at a 52-week high and at long term technical resistance of $22 a share that dates back to 2006, Symantec looks well positioned to breakout.