With all of the troubles at Symantec
The lowered guidance comes on the heels of market-share gains by some competitors, such as Trend Micro
Add to these pressures the constant negative attention the company has received, and it is enough to drag any share price down. I can attest to the validity of the recent BusinessWeek article on how hackers are now targeting Symantec's products. Then, to add injury to insult, a "critical" flaw in more than 40 of Symantec's consumer and enterprise products was revealed. How many people want to have AntiVirus software that actually opens a door for a malicious hacker to break in?
It's easy to say Symantec's stock is cheap. The company is near its 52-week low, its forward P/E is below the industry average, and it has a strong cash flow, despite the restatement. It's possible that management is just temporarily distracted because of the integration of Veritas, and the problems will be limited.
But look who's ready to leap into the IT security market: Microsoft
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Fool contributor Rob Perri wishes you happy holidays from Europe. He doesn't own any shares of the companies mentioned above.