Symantec Guidance Suffers From Strong Dollar

On a GAAP basis, Symantec posted EPS of $0.32, down 20% year-over-year.

Operating margin rose to 30.4% compared with 29.9% in the year-ago quarter. The company’s chief financial officer attributed the increase to operational efficiencies. Last November the company said it expected to lay off about 10% of its workforce before splitting itself into two separate, publicly traded companies. The company estimated the cost would be about $220 million.

Symantec’s split will result in an information management company, which it says it has rebranded under the name Veritas. Symantec paid more than $10 billion to acquire Veritas Software in 2005. The security software portion will continue to operate under the Symantec name. The split is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

ALSO READ: Short Sellers and Analysts Sour on 3D Printing

The company announced a new $1 billion share repurchase program as well today, and said it would pay its expected quarterly dividend of $0.15 next month. The ex-dividend date on the stock is February 24.

The company’s CEO said:

Over the next few quarters, we will deliver more powerful advanced threat protection capabilities that will better detect and remediate attacks. Our information management business, recently rebranded as Veritas, is experiencing accelerating growth, driven by double-digit revenue growth for both our NetBackup appliances and NetBackup software.

The company expects fourth-quarter revenues of $1.53 billion to $1.59 billion at expected foreign exchange rates and adjusted EPS in the range of $0.42 to $0.45. Consensus estimates call for fourth quarter EPS of $0.49 on revenues of $1.63 billion. For the 2015 fiscal year the company sees revenues of $6.52 billion to $6.58 billion at expected exchange rates and adjusted EPS of $1.87 to $1.90. Analysts are looking for EPS of $1.90 on revenues of $6.66 billion.

At previous exchange rates, the company guided quarterly EPS and revenues at ranges of $0.48 to $0.51 and $1.62 billion to $1.686 billion, respectively. Full year EPS at previous foreign exchange rates are estimated at a range of $2.00 to $2.03 and revenues come in at $6.7 to $6.76 billion.

Symantec’s shares traded down about 1.8% at $25.50 in after-hours trading Thursday, in a 52-week range of $17.95 to $27.32. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $25.30 before the report.

ALSO READ: U.S. Cities Where Violent Crime Is Soaring