Earnings Preview for Symantec (SYMC)

Symantec SYMC is scheduled to report fiscal fourth-quarter 2011 results after the closing bell tomorrow, May 11. Analysts are looking for the company to announce that per-share earnings slipped 10% from a year ago to $0.36. That consensus estimate is unchanged in the past 60 days. The census revenue forecast calls for $1.6 billion, an increase of 4.2% from a year ago. Symantec provides security, storage, and systems management software for consumers and businesses. It operates in four segments: Consumer, Security and Compliance, Storage and Server Management, and Services. The company markets and sells its products through direct sales, distributors, resellers, systems integrators and Internet service providers. Last week, Symantec announced a partnership with Salesforce.com CRM to provide security for cloud-based applications. For the full year, analysts are looking for earnings to have slipped 7.3% year-over-year to $1.40 per share and revenues up marginally to $6.1 million. Note that Symantec's earnings have not fallen short of analysts' estimates in the past six quarters. Symantec has a consensus Buy rating and a mean price target of $21.00. Shares are trading near the 52-week high of $19.82 and are up about 16% from the beginning of the year. The stock has outperformed Microsoft MSFT and the broader market year to date.