Symantec’s Earnings Will Show Effects Of Mobile And Muted PC Shipments

Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) will to announce its Q4 results on May 2. With guidance lowered due to lower PC shipments, we expect the results to be below the guidance provided. Symantec competes primarily with Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) via McAfee, and Trend Micro and Kaspersky Labs in security software.

Check out our complete analysis of Symantec

Outlook for 2012

Revenue for the quarter is expected to be $1.7 billion, and the full year revenue is expected to come in at $6.75 billion. Q4 2011 saw revenues of $1.67 billion as slower PC shipments were blamed for the lowered result, perhaps due to consumers awaiting the release of Windows 8 later this year. The weaker storage business is also a factor for the lowered outlook. ^[1]

Mobile Security To Drive Business

As smartphones get more complex, we are seeing an increasing demand for security on mobile devices. Symantec has a range of software which prevents theft of data from mobile phones that are lost. This is an added feature over the standard security measures to prevent viruses and malware.

We expect this division to become a major driver of revenues. Businesses are moving to cloud computing platforms and mobile devices are being used to access enterprise data and this is likely to drive the mobile security business of Symantec. This is a big growth opportunity as smartphones are expected to grow at a rate of 55% or so and reach a yearly shipment size of one billion phones by 2015. ^[2] This far outstrips the market growth of PCs which are likely to decline due to increasing adoption of tablets.

Understand How a Company’s Products Impact its Stock Price at Trefis

1. Symantec To Confirm 4Q Warning On Lower Income, www.ibtimes.com, May 1, 2012 [↩]
2. IDC Smartphone Growth Estimate, IDC [↩]