Symantec cuts outlook for fiscal Q3

Symantec cut its outlook for its December quarter after reporting mixed results for its fiscal second quarter.

In a statement, Symantec CEO Steve Bennett said the company was making progress with its moves to simplify, but had a "a challenging quarter in our transition year."

Symantec reported second quarter earnings of $241 million, or 34 cents a share, on revenue of $1.64 billion, down 4 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 50 cents a share. Wall Street was looking for second quarter non-GAAP earnings of 44 cents a share on revenue of $1.68 billion.

As for the outlook, Symantec also foreshadowed a few struggles. Symantec said its third quarter sales will be $1.63 billion to $1.67 billion with non-GAAP shares between 41 cents a share and 43 cents a share.

Wall Street was looking for Symantec to report fiscal third quarter non-GAAP earnings of 51 cents a share on revenue of $1.78 billion.

For fiscal 2014, Symantec said its revenue will fall 3 percent to 4 percent.

By the numbers for Symantec's second quarter:

• Symantec's user productivity and protection unit (endpoint security and mobile) fell 3 percent from a year ago.
• Information security fell 2 percent from a year ago.
• Information management sales fell 5 percent from a year ago.
• International revenue fell 4 percent from a year ago. The Americas revenue fell 3 percent from a year ago.