Avast antivirus-owner Gen Digital forecasts upbeat 2026 on strong demand
(Reuters) -Gen Digital, which offers antivirus software such as Avast, Avira and Norton, forecast annual revenue and profit above analysts' estimate on Tuesday, signaling strong demand for its cybersecurity tools, sending its shares up about 4% after the bell.
High-profile digital hacks and an increase in online scams have provoked companies to fortify their systems against evolving threats, boosting enterprise spending on cybersecurity solutions, even as growing economic uncertainty casts a shadow on clients' budget.
The company forecasts full-year 2026 revenue to be between $4.70 billion and $4.80 billion, compared with analysts' average estimate of $4.13 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
It expects adjusted per-share profit in the range of $2.46 to $2.54, above the estimate of $2.43.
Advanced security solutions have seen strong demand, especially as artificial intelligence increasingly enables more hacking techniques.
Gen Digital posted fourth-quarter revenue of $1.01 billion, beating analysts' estimate of $997 million.
The Tempe, Arizona-based company earned 59 cents per share on an adjusted basis during the period, compared with the estimate of 58 cents.
(Reporting by Kritika Lamba in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Is the Vanguard 500 Index ETF the Smartest Investment You Can Make Today?
The Vanguard 500 Index ETF is a low-cost way to track the S&P 500 index. The S&P 500 is a simple way to track the broader U.S. stock market. The index trades at lofty levels today, but remains a great long-term strategy. 10 stocks we like better than Vanguard S&P 500 ETF › So far, 2025 has been a very volatile year for the stock market. The S&P 500 index fell into a correction early in the year and then quickly climbed out of that drawdown. While the recovery was nice to see, it also means that the S&P 500 index is back near its all-time highs. Is the S&P 500-tracking Vanguard 500 Index ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) the smartest investment you can make today? The Vanguard 500 Index ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF). Much like a mutual fund, it allows many investors to pool their assets so they can hire a professional money manager to invest for them. The biggest difference is that mutual funds can only be bought and sold at the end of each trading day, while ETFs can be bought and sold all day long, just like a stock. As the Vanguard 500 Index ETF's name hints, it is an index fund that tracks the S&P 500. This index is the generally accepted benchmark for U.S. stocks. However, the index is really meant to track the U.S. economy. The 500 or so stocks in the index are selected by a committee, not for investment merit, but based on how well the overall collection of stocks represents the economy. The mix shifts and adjusts over time. The index is market-cap weighted, meaning the largest companies have the biggest effect on performance, just like in the broader economy. As for costs, the Vanguard 500 Index ETF has an ultra-low expense ratio of 0.03%. That is roughly one-third the cost of the first-ever S&P 500 index-tracking ETF, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF. Since the Vanguard 500 Index ETF and SPDR S&P 500 ETF do the exact same thing, that cost advantage makes the Vanguard 500 Index ETF the smarter choice. There are clearly better and worse times to invest in the S&P 500 index. Right now, with the market near all-time highs, is probably a worse time. There's a good chance that buying today will mean sitting on some near-term capital losses in the not-too-distant future. But that doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't buy the Vanguard 500 Index ETF if you have some cash to put to work today. Notice the 2020 recession and bear market in the above chart. At the time, there was a massive amount of uncertainty because of the coronavirus pandemic. Yet, just five years or so later, the market has not only recovered all the ground it lost, but has moved notably higher. That drop just looks like a random bit of noise. Even if you'd bought the Vanguard 500 Index ETF right before that deep price decline, you would have made out OK. Stitching the view to the SPDR S&P 500 ETF because it has been around for longer allows an even greater appreciation of the S&P 500 index's historical growth. As the chart below shows, the recession and bear market after the turn of the century and deep downturn during the Great Recession also look like mere blips in 2025. This is the big point here. Buying the market has worked out well over time, even if you timed the purchase (shockingly) poorly. The key is to stay invested for the long term. Even better would be to reinvest your dividends so you can compound your returns. And even better still would be continuing to add cash at regular intervals to benefit from dollar-cost averaging. The big-picture goal is to start investing and keep investing for as long as possible. If you do that, history suggests you'll end up just fine. For some investors, the fun in all of this is picking individual stocks. But there are far more investors who don't want to do that because it is time-consuming and difficult. For investors who want to keep their investing lives simple, the Vanguard 500 Index ETF is a wonderful choice. That's as true today as it was just before the pandemic, the Great Recession, and the crash. Focus on the long term and just get started! Before you buy stock in Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $669,517!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $868,615!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 792% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 173% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Reuben Gregg Brewer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Is the Vanguard 500 Index ETF the Smartest Investment You Can Make Today? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
DealMakerInsider.com Publishes a New White Paper with Expert Insights on How Private Equity Firms Assess Acquisition Opportunities
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio, June 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- today announces the publication of an original white paper, What Makes a Business an Attractive Target: Inside the Mind of a Financial Acquirer. Authored by Tee Gwena, Managing Partner of Transora Partners, this exclusive article offers seasoned M&A advisors actionable insights into the key factors financial buyers consider when evaluating acquisition opportunities. Powered by M&A Source®, delivers curated content to help experienced advisors drive more success. Access to this content is provided free-of-charge. M&A Source is the preeminent professional association dedicated to lower middle market mergers and acquisitions. In his paper, What Makes a Business an Attractive Target: Inside the Mind of a Financial Acquirer, Mr. Gwena writes, "Often, sellers come to market with businesses built in a vacuum — shaped by habit, circumstance, or legacy rather than with an eventual acquirer in mind, yet alone a financial acquirer. If advisors can help bridge that gap by showing clients what financial buyers are actually looking for, they can drive better outcomes and position themselves as true strategic partners in an increasingly competitive M&A landscape." Tee Gwena is a Managing Partner at Transora Partners, a unique transition-focused investment firm providing capital and strategic advisory to founder-led and family-owned lower middle market businesses. In this article, Mr. Gwena shares expert insights for advisors on aligning their clients' businesses with investor expectations. Capitalizing on Buyer Demand How Acquirers Think What Makes an Attractive Target Practical Applications "At M&A Source®, our aim is to be the source of education, best practices, networking and deal sourcing for professionals engaged in lower middle market business transactions. Our educational portal, provides curated content for established advisors, who want to enhance their M&A acumen and elevate their success in the dealmaking arena." - Kylene Golubski, Executive Director, M&A Source Access these expert insights on About M&A Source M&A Source® is the leading not for profit association for individuals and firms engaged in lower middle market business transactions. The association provides education, benefits, conferences, support programs and networking opportunities, and awards the Mergers & Acquisitions Master Intermediary® (M&AMI®) designation to qualified advisors. For additional information, contact M&A Source directly at 216-243-0030. Facebook - Twitter - - - - View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE M&A Source Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
3 Monster Stocks -- including Nvidia -- to Hold for the Next 10 Years
Nvidia has been growing by an average of more than 70% annually. Intuitive Surgical is the 800-pound gorilla in the robotic surgery world. Microsoft is huge and getting bigger -- while paying a dividend. 10 stocks we like better than Intuitive Surgical › The S&P 500 index tracks the stock performance of America's biggest companies, and it has averaged annual gains of roughly 10% over multiple decades. That's pretty darn good performance, enough to more than quintuple an investment over 15 years for those who purchased exchange-traded funds (ETFs) mirroring the index. Some individual stocks, though, have done better than that -- much better. In the table below, you'll see that the S&P 500 has been growing at a much faster rate over the past 15 years compared to its long-term 10% average. That outsized performance is due, in part, to the eye-popping average annual gains of some of its components, including what some might label as monster stocks, that have managed monster performances. Average Annual Return SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: SPY) 14.85% 12.90% 14.18% Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) 73.46% 73.83% 50.57% Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG) 23.08% 26.07% 20.03% Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) 20.78% 26.64% 21.75% Data source: as of June 6, 2025. These kinds of returns are not guaranteed to continue. Many dynamically growing companies see their growth rates slow as they become massive companies. But a select few manage to keep up that outsized growth. Here's a closer look at three companies with this potential and some reasons why you might want to buy and/or keep holding any of them. Nvidia got its start as a maker of semiconductor chips for the videogame industry, but it has expanded its scope in the past decade. A side hustle into chip design catered to aid cryptocurrency mining has led to the development of chips and software that are now fueling the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, and it is churning out gobs of chips for data centers -- enough to be the world's leading supplier of graphics processing units for the data centers used in cloud computing. Data centers have replaced gaming as Nvidia's focus, and the company raked in $39 billion in revenue in fiscal 2026's first quarter from its data center business -- fully 89% of total revenue. Better still, CEO Jensen Huang forecasts that AI infrastructure spending could top $1 trillion annually within a few years, and he sees Nvidia capturing most of that business. Despite the monster performance over the past several years, Nvidia stock doesn't appear to be wildly overvalued at recent levels. Its recent forward-looking price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 33, for example, is well below the five-year average of 40. Consider buying Nvidia to hold for the next 10 years or more to take advantage of this forecasted growth. Intuitive Surgical is another strong stock performer, though it's not as attractively valued as Nvidia lately. Its forward P/E was recently at a steep 72, well above the five-year average of 56 (which is steep as well). So think twice before buying at these levels and look for opportunities to buy on the dip. But if you already own the stock, you might want to hold on. Intuitive Surgical is a leader in robotic surgery equipment. It has more than 8,600 of its million-dollar-plus da Vinci robotic surgery systems installed in 71 countries. Together, they've been used to perform more than 14 million medical procedures. I'm a shareholder and I'm hanging on because I expect the company to keep selling and installing surgical systems, and to keep raking in profits from doing so. Notably, Intuitive Surgical derives 84% of its revenue not from the systems themselves, but from dependable recurring sales of servicing, supplies, and accessories for the machines. Microsoft is a tech giant with many growing operations contributing to its steady growth. It's home to the dominant Office 365 suite of applications, the Azure cloud computing platform, the Xbox gaming platform, the Windows operating system, and even the business-oriented social media giant LinkedIn, among other ventures. Microsoft is huge (its market value hovers around $3.5 trillion), but it's still growing at a fairly rapid clip, with some of its recent growth largely attributable to its AI-related ventures. In its third quarter of fiscal 2025, revenue was up by 13% year over year, and net income rose by 18%. Its intelligent cloud division grew by 21%. The company is generating more cash than it needs to spend on growth, so it's paying shareholders a dividend that recently yielded 0.71%. (That might not seem like a lot, but the yield is pushed down because of strong share price performance and the dividend is growing briskly -- up from $2.09 per share in 2020 to $3.24 per share currently.) Despite the strong share price performance, its stock remains appealingly valued, too, with a recent forward P/E of 31 only a bit above the five-year average of 30. Given the steady growth, the stock seems well worth hanging on to for the next decade -- and beyond. Before you buy stock in Intuitive Surgical, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Intuitive Surgical wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $669,517!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $868,615!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 792% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 173% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Selena Maranjian has positions in Intuitive Surgical, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Intuitive Surgical, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 3 Monster Stocks -- including Nvidia -- to Hold for the Next 10 Years was originally published by The Motley Fool
