Utilities software house Symantec Corp has announced that earnings for its first fiscal quarter will come in at about $0.40 per share, before charges, on revenue of $153m, both figures pretty much flat with the preceding quarter and up from $0.32 and $135m, respectively, in the year-ago quarter. The report is unlikely to create a major stir, as the consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call had been $0.41 for the quarter. Despite the close call on the bottom line, the company made the pre-announcement largely because revenues are short of the $160m- $161m that Wall Street was expecting, according to chief financial officer Howard Bain. The shortfall was largely due to lower-than-expected retail distribution sell-through, Bain said. The aforementioned charges will amount to $30m-$32m and stem from the company’s acquisition of New Zealand-based disk-cloning outfit Binary Research Ltd (CI No 3,439) and its deal with IBM Corp for marketing anti-virus software. Wall Street was pleased with the news, with Symantec shares jumping $3.1875 to close at $25.50. The company will report full results on July 16.
