(By Balaseshan) Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) reported a 12% decline in quarterly earnings due to higher costs and expenses as well as an increase in provision for taxes. Results exceeded Street's expectations, and the security software company split Chairman and CEO positions, sending its shares up 3.79% in premarket.
Earnings for the third quarter were $212 million or $0.20 per share, down from $240 million or $0.32 per share last year. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) rose to $0.45 from $0.42.
Net revenue increased 4% to $1.79 billion, on strength in EMEA, information management and license revenue. Revenue rose 5% after adjusting for currency.
Analysts, on average, polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a profit of $0.38 per share on revenue of $1.74 billion for the third quarter.
Deferred revenue was $3.806 billion for the latest quarter, up 4% year-over-year on an actual and currency-adjusted basis.
Consumer revenue rose 1%, while Security and Compliance revenue increased 3%. Storage and Server Management revenue increased 8%, while Services revenue grew 10%.
Revenue from the Americas, including the United States, Latin America and Canada, rose 3%, while International revenue increased 6%. The Europe, Middle East and Africa revenue increased 6%, while Asia Pacific/Japan revenue grew 7%.
Adjusted operating margin was 25.6%, down 60 basis points year-over-year and down 80 basis points after adjusting for currency, due to increased investment in certain areas to better serve its customer needs, the company noted.
In a separate release, the company said it has split the roles of chairman of the board and chief executive officer. The board has elected director Dan Schulman to the position of non-executive chairman while Steve Bennett remains president and chief executive officer.
SYMC closed Tuesday's regular session at $20.86. The stock has been trading between $13.06 and $21.14 for the past 52 weeks.