Symantec Q2 Profit Rises On Consumer Sales

The Cupertino, Calif.-based security giant posted net income of $123.4 million, or 12 cents a share, compared to a loss of $251.3 million, or 21 cents a share, during the same period last year resulting from the Veritas acquisition.

Excluding stock options expenses and other considerations, Symantec's net income was $259 million, down from $273 million last year, while earnings per share rose to 26 cents compared to 23 cents a year ago.

Analysts polled by Thomson First Call had expected adjusted net income for the quarter to be 27 cents a share on revenue of $1.29 billion.

Quarterly revenue rose to $1.26 billion during the quarter from $1.06 billion in the second quarter last year.

Sales of Symantec's consumer products comprised 31 percent of total revenue during the quarter and increased 12 percent year-on-year, while the vendor's enterprise business grew 5 percent during the same period.

"Our results for the September quarter met the low end of our expectations," said John Thompson, chairman and CEO of Symantec.

Symantec's services group posted revenue of $55 million and 14 percent year-on-year growth, and services now represent about 4 percent of the vendor's revenue. Thompson has repeatedly stated his goal of boosting Symantec's services business to 10 percent of overall revenue by 2010.

For its third quarter, Symantec expects revenue of between $1.315 billion and $1.345 billion, and earnings per share of between 14 cents and 15 cents.

Shares of Symantec were down $1.54 at $19.24 Wednesday in after hours trading.