Symantec shares fall after hours on weak Q2 outlook
Symantec published its first quarter fiscal 2019 results on Thursday that were in line with market expectations. However, shares fell by double digits in after-hours trading due to a weaker-than-expected second quarter outlook.
The cybersecurity company posted Q1 non-GAAP earnings per share of 34 cents on revenue of $1.156 billion.
Wall Street was looking for earnings of 33 cents per share on revenue of $1.15 billion.
Symantec's Q1 enterprise implied billings were below expectations due to longer-than-expected sales cycles for large, multi-product platform sales, CEO Greg Clark noted in a statement. The "pipeline management issue" was isolated to North America, he said. The enterprise segment brought in $556 million in GAAP revenues ($565 million in non-GAAP), compared to $646 million a year earlier (or $669 million non-GAAP).
Consequently, Symantec lowered its full-year 2019 guidance. The company now expects revenues between $4.64 billion and $4.76 billion, when previously its revenue outlook was between $4.76 billion and $4.9 billion.
For Q2, Symantec now expects non-GAAP earnings between 31 cents and 35 cents on revenue between $1.122 billion and $1.152 billion.
Analysts have been expecting non-GAAP earnings per share of 38 cents on revenue of $1.19 billion.
At the same time, Clark highlighted Symantec's strong Consumer Digital segment, which brought in $600 million in revenue. A year prior, the segment brought in $529 million.
Clark said Symantec "is well positioned to execute against the opportunity in the cyber defense market."
"We believe demand remains strong across our products and services and are confident in our long-term strategy to drive organic growth and leverage our scale, innovation and capital to create industry-leading platform solutions," he said.