Symantec Upgraded To Reflect Veritas Spinoff

Symantec Corp. was upgraded to equal-weight and its price target raised to $24 at Morgan Stanley on Friday on optimism that risks related to the company's restructuring plan have been priced into the stock. The bank also believes that Symantec's $8 billion sale of Veritas makes the remaining security business a more focused and streamlined unit that allows management greater flexibility with how it uses cash. The upgrade puts Morgan Stanley in line with the vast majority of Wall Street. The average rating and price target on Symantec's stock among a poll of 25 analysts on FactSet is the equivalent to hold and $24.19, respectively. The cyber security company reported a worse-than-expected 14% year-over-year decline in quarterly revenue last week. While Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss said Symantec still has "a lot of work to do," he said the sale of Veritas makes Symantec much more attractive to investors with "more limited downside."