Part of Wall St. thinks Symantec owns the computer security business, especially on the PC platfrom. And, part of Wall St. thinks that Microsoft Vista is going to take that market away. Symantec entered the year with its stock just shy of $18. It now trades just above $19 The company trades about 16 million shares a day, so the market pays attention.
Part of the reason investors are wary about the stock is that certain firms like S&P think the security software firm’s growth is slowing. If Vista horns into the market, that could get worse.
There is a case to be made that Symantec’s growth period is not over. In the period ending September 29, revenue grew 20% over the same quarter the previous year, hitting $1.26 billion. The company’s CEO said the company is on target to hit is financial goals for the year.
Even if the company can demonstrate that its revenue will not be stagnant, the shadow of Microsoft’s Vista security software is not going away soon.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.
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