Symantec Nearly Doubles Revenue

The security vendor on Wednesday posted a 48 percent year-over-year increase in revenue growth for its fiscal first quarter ending July 2, 2004.

Revenue for the quarter came in at $577 million, nearly double the $391 million that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company reported for the same quarter last year, according to company representatives.

Net income for the company also surged in the fiscal first quarter to $131 million, more than double the $59 million reported for the same quarter last year. Gross profit rose to $476 million for the quarter, up from $323 million for the same quarter last year.

Shareholders also had reason to smile with earnings per share of $0.37, a significant increase from Symantec's earnings per share of $0.18 for the same quarter a year ago.

Symantec Chairman and CEO John Thompson gave some credit for the company's impressive gains to the increased number of IT-oriented threats. "Our enterprise business continues to gain momentum as we enhance our offerings to protect customers from a broadening array of threats, and the consumer business continues to perform above expectations," Thompson said in a statement.

A key contributor to the numbers was Symantec's consumer business, which grew 79 percent and represented 52 percent of total revenue.

In light of the earnings, Symantec raised its fiscal second quarter guidance to $580 million, an increase of $15 million from prior guidance.