Briefing.com raves about SYMC, as "offering everything you look for in a stock." Read on:
Symantec (SYMC) 57 1/4 +10: Another quarter, another upside surprise. Symantec posted its fifth consecutive blowout quarter yesterday after the close, and the hot money has flocked back in droves. The five cent Q1 upside surprise ($0.67 actual vs $0.62 est.) came with a positive
preannouncement that Q2 EPS will be $0.62-0.68 (vs est. of $0.63) and FY01 (March 01)earnings will be 30% higher than last year. Last year's FY00 EPS was $2.10, suggesting that
FY01 will come in around $2.73, 5% better than the current consensus mean. The market has rewarded the company with a 21% spike today on almost three times SYMC's average daily
volume. SYMC shares seem to have fallen off the radar screen over the past month, dropping 20% on no news. Today's session has more than made up for the drop as the market's collective memory has recalled the leadership position that Symantec products command. Symantec is the world leader in Internet security technologies, offering a complete software suite in the consumer space and rapidly branching into the enterprise market as well as expanding internationally. Enterprise sales are ramping quickly and accounted for about $96 mln of Q1's $191.4 mln in sales, about 50% versus 28% in the year-ago period. Strong growth was also recorded in international sales, representing 44% of total revenues versus 27% in June of 1999. Another standout from the quarter was their announced deal with Yahoo! (YHOO) to provide anti-virus technology to Yahoo! Mail users. Although we don't know the financial arrangement of the deal (if any), the agreement verifies Symantec's superiority and adds to the brand exposure. Looking forward, you can expect at least 20% annual top-line growth as the company continues to increase penetration in the enterprise and international markets. SYMC offers everything you look for in a stock -- strong revenue growth, a market leadership position, superior earnings growth, market expanding opportunities and superior proprietary technology. Even after today's spike, SYMC shares are trading at an attractive 20.9x FY01 EPS forecasts and an even more compelling PEG of 0.8, using a long-term earnings growth rate of 25%. |
