Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) today reported the results of its third quarter of fiscal year 2015, ended January 2, 2015.
Michael A. Brown, president and CEO, said, “Cyberattacks continue to dominate the headlines with more than 70 percent of these still occurring at the endpoint. By harnessing Symantec’s vast threat telemetry to deliver actionable insight, we continue to prevent attacks at hundreds of millions of enterprise and consumer endpoints.”
“As the market leader in endpoint security, our enterprise endpoint protection revenue grew 5 percent year-over-year in constant currency. Over the next few quarters, we will deliver more powerful advanced threat protection capabilities that will better detect and remediate attacks.”
“Our information management business, recently rebranded as Veritas, is experiencing accelerating growth, driven by double-digit revenue growth for both our NetBackup appliances and NetBackup software.”
Thomas Seifert, executive vice president and CFO, said, “Driving operational efficiencies across the company has allowed us to achieve our 30 percent operating margin target. We saw implied billings growth for three consecutive quarters on a constant currency basis, in addition to a 21 percent increase in large deals, underlining that the momentum in our businesses is strong.”
Results for the Third Quarter of Fiscal Year 2015 (Dollars in millions, except EPS)
| 3Q15 | 3Q14 | Reported Y/Y
Change |
FX Adjusted Y/Y Change | |
| GAAP | ||||
| Revenue | $1,638 | $1,705 | (4%) | 0% |
| Operating Margin | 20.0% | 23.8% | (380) bps | (270) bps |
| Net Income | $222 | $283 | (22%) | N/A |
| Deferred Revenue | $3,494 | $3,654 | (4%) | 1% |
| EPS (Diluted) | $0.32 | $0.40 | (20%) | N/A |
| CFFO | $358 | $329 | 9% | N/A |
| Non-GAAP | ||||
| Operating Margin | 30.4% | 29.9% | 50 bps | 140 bps |
| Net Income | $367 | $367 | 0% | N/A |
| EPS (Diluted) | $0.53 | $0.52 | 2% | N/A |
Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2015 Guidance (Dollars in millions, except EPS and FX rate)
| 4Q15 | FY15 | |||
| At Expected
FX Rate |
At Previous
FX Rate |
At Expected
FX Rate |
At Previous
FX Rate |
|
| GAAP | ||||
| Revenue | $1,525 – $1,585 | $1,620 – $1,680 | $6,515 – $6,575 | $6,700 – $6,760 |
| Operating Margin | 14.9% – 15.9% | 17.9% – 18.9% | 18.8% – 19.0% | 20.1% – 20.3% |
| EPS (Diluted) | $0.22 – $0.25 | $0.29 – $0.32 | $1.23 – $1.26 | $1.36 – $1.39 |
| Non-GAAP | ||||
| Operating Margin | 26.5% – 27.5% | 28.9% – 29.9% | 27.5% – 27.7% | 28.6% – 28.8% |
| EPS (Diluted) | $0.42 – $0.45 | $0.48 – $0.51 | $1.87 – $1.90 | $2.00 – $2.03 |
| Tax Rate | 25.5% | 25.5% | 24.8% | 24.8% |
| Share Count | 693 million | 693 million | 696 million | 696 million |
| FX Rate (€/$) | $1.16 | $1.38 | $1.28 | $1.38 |
Symantec’s Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.15 per common share to be paid on March 18, 2015 to all shareholders of record as of the close of business on February 26, 2015. The ex-dividend date will be February 24, 2015.
In a separate press release today, the company also announced that its Board of Directors has approved a new $1 billion share repurchase program.
