Symantec rides worms to record profit in Q2

Citing “numerous threat outbreaks during the quarter,” security software company Symantec announced record revenue and earnings figures for the second quarter of the company’s fiscal year and said it was introducing a two-for-one stock split.

Citing “numerous threat outbreaks during the quarter,” security software company Symantec announced record revenue and earnings figures for the second quarter of the company’s fiscal year and said it was introducing a two-for-one stock split.

The Cupertino, Calif., company recorded revenue of $429 million for the quarter and income of $83 million for earnings per share of $0.49. That compares with income of $52 million, or earnings per share of $0.33, on revenue of $325 million in the same quarter last year.

Strong growth in Symantec’s enterprise security business and an uptick in demand for its line of consumer products, such as Norton AntiVirus, fueled the growth, Symantec said.

Symantec did not break out revenue based on its various businesses in the financial statement, but it said revenue from the enterprise security products business grew 25% over the same quarter last year to account for 41% of the company’s overall revenue.

Revenue from the sale of its consumer products grew by 56% over the same quarter last year to account for 45% of the company’s overall revenue, Symantec said.

Revenue from enterprise services grew by 53% to account for 2% of total revenue, Symantec said.

Circumstances cooperated to deliver a strong quarter for the company.

August was one of the busiest months ever for antivirus software vendors. Symantec recorded four major worm outbreaks during the month, including the Blaster and Sobig worms, which infected hundreds of thousands of Internet users worldwide and flooded corporate networks with attack traffic.

In a statement, Symantec CEO John W. Thompson said it was a “stellar quarter across the board” and credited the company’s integrated approach to selling products to businesses and consumers for the company’s strong fiscal performance.

In a related announcement, Symantec said its board of directors had approved a two-for-one stock split, which it scheduled for mid-November. The split will increase the number of Symantec shares from approximately 154 million to 308 million.