More Takers for Symantec's Solutions

Recently, Symantec Corp ( SYMC - Analyst Report ) is seeing improved demand for its security solutions, which in turn is helping the company to generate higher business volume.

Consistent with this trend, the company struck a new deal with Northeastern Illinois University, under which the University will deploy its backup and security software solutions and consolidate various IT environments across the university campus. The move is aimed at cost optimization, back up improvement and providing better messaging security.

This is expected to help Northeastern Illinois University to improve its IT infrastructure and has also reduced the threat of spam mails. Moreover, as per this service agreement, Symantec NetBackup has standardized the university's IT environment.

Following several security breaches, Northeastern Illinois has upgraded to Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.

Apart from tapping new opportunities in the education segment, the company is also famous for its Internet mobile security solutions. This fact is further emphasized by Samsung Electronics selecting Symantec’s flagship product, Norton Mobile Security for a 90-day complimentary subscription on its Galaxy smartphones. Samsung is one of the largest smartphone sellers in the U.S., selling phones that run on Google’s ( GOOG - Analyst Report ) Android OS.

Symantec’s relentless effort to drive further share in the security market with the latest iterations of its flagship products will likely ensure continuous deal wins. In March this year, the company introduced the latest version of Symantec Data Insight 3.0, which will improve information management and facilitate the usage of unstructured data such as documents, presentations, spreadsheets and emails.

Symantec’s prospects look bright as worldwide spending on security software could increase 10% this year to $20.7 billion, according to Gartner.

The company’s exposure to the mobile security and data management market is encouraging. Moreover, the company is also venturing into other segments including the educational sector. But uncertainty over PC sales is going to remain a concern for its Consumer segment throughout the year.

Moreover, reduction in tech spending by different government and private organizations, stiff competition from McAfee -- acquired by Intel Corp. ( ( INTC - Analyst Report ) -- as well as the prevailing economic turmoil in Europe may have a slightly dampening effect on the company’s business. Symantec’s guidance is weak, and we believe that this could be due to the above-mentioned reasons.

Currently, Symantec has a Zacks #3 Rank, implying a short-term Hold rating.