Symantec Attempting To Transition From Bulky Backup Company To Next-Gen Security Provider

Wunderlich Securities thinks Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) has spent more money in the last few years on transforming itself to next-generation security provider. Earlier, the company was restricted to backup and bulky legacy security.

Analysts Bill Choi and Ryan MacDonald believe the transformation could enable Symantec to offer updated solutions to different segments like web/cloud with the addition of Blue Coat Systems to the consumer and enterprises. As a result, the company would become strong to boost its market share inside the IT segment by consolidating its presence in the enterprise segment.

As a result, the brokerage upgraded the stock from Hold to a Buy rating and boosted target price from $23 to $30.

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"We believe it will be increasingly important for enterprise security vendors to correlate threat intelligence across multiple control points – endpoint, email, and network. In our opinion, Symantec significantly improved its position with the Blue Coat acquisition, which has good mix of web and cloud security," according to the research note.

The brokerage sees stabilization in Symantec's core businesses based on the expectation of reaccelerated endpoint security business due to the integration of BlueCoat business. The lead analyst sees the company gaining in DLP and cyber security services due to Blue Coat.

Wunderlich sees Symantec progressing well toward achieving its cost savings goal of $400 million pointing out that it has already achieved $50 million runrate in the last quarter. Analyst expects more than $150 million cost savings from Blue Coat amalgamation.

At time of writing, Symantec was down 0.52 percent at $24.72.

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