Symantec Shows Off Strong Q1

Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) reported a strong set of first-quarter results yesterday, posting revenue of $577 million, up 48 percent on the first quarter last year. Executives on the companys earnings call attributed the performance to healthy enterprise revenues and stronger than expected consumer results.

Net income for the fiscal first quarter was $131 million, compared to $59 million for the same quarter last year. Earnings per share were 37 cents, compared to 18 cents for the year-ago quarter.

During the call, Greg Myers, Symantec’s CFO, explained that sales of the firm’s anti-virus products received a boost thanks to the Sasser worm. The company also benefitted from the dollar’s poor performance against the Euro, he said.

Symantec CEO John Thompson also gave an insight into some of the company’s planned product launches over the next few months. These will include a new multi-gigabit intrusion and detection technology, as well as a new gateway security appliance. Thompson said that the new appliance, which can be deployed at remote offices, will come with a solution enabling hundreds of the devices to be managed from a single site.

This new appliance will fill out the company’s 5400 Series Gateway product –- an all-in-one box containing content filtering, anti-virus, and firewall features.Symantec’s enterprise security business represented 35 percent of total revenue and grew 24 percent year over year. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company’s consumer business grew 79 percent, representing 52 percent of total revenue.

Symantec is now raising its guidance for the second quarter, with revenues estimated at $580 million, an increase of $15 million on prior guidance. The firm also raised its forward-looking guidance for the 2005 fiscal year to $2.405 billion, an increase of $70 million from prior guidance.

In May, Symantec acquired subscription-based anti-spam specialist Brightmail in an effort to bolster its application tier security story (see Symantec Buys Brightmail ). However, Symantec execs on yesterday’s earnings call said the Brightmail acquisition had little impact on the company’s first-quarter results, estimating that it could take another four financial quarters before Brightmail starts to make “a significant contribution” to revenues.

— James Rogers, Site Editor, Next-gen Data Center Forum