Symantec beats 3Q profit expectations, misses revenue forecasts

Symantec Corp. (SYMC) on Thursday reported fiscal third-quarter net income of $222 million.

On a per-share basis, the Mountain View, California-based company said it had profit of 32 cents. Earnings, adjusted for restructuring costs and stock option expense, were 53 cents per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 49 cents per share.

The security software maker posted revenue of $1.64 billion in the period, falling short of Street forecasts. Analysts expected $1.67 billion, according to Zacks.

For the current quarter ending in March, Symantec expects its per-share earnings to range from 42 cents to 45 cents.

The company said it expects revenue in the range of $1.53 billion to $1.59 billion for the fiscal fourth quarter. Analysts surveyed by Zacks had expected revenue of $1.63 billion.

Symantec expects full-year earnings in the range of $1.87 to $1.90 per share, with revenue ranging from $6.52 billion to $6.58 billion.

Symantec shares have risen 1 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has stayed nearly flat. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $25.97, a climb of 26 percent in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on SYMC at http://www.zacks.com/ap/SYMC

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Keywords: Symantec, Earnings Report