Goldman Sachs Analyzes Symantec Acquisition (SYMC, VRSN)

Following Symantec Corp.'s

acquisition of Verisign's security assets, Goldman Sachs held its neutral rating for the stock. Goldman analysts appeared pleased with Symantec's move, as they said it "stays within their area of expertise and continues on their path to be a one-stop-security shop)" and called it a "strategic use of cash." They see strong potential for authentication and data protection "as the world transitions to Cloud [computing], and Symantec's franchise and brand have value here." But SYMC is underperforming its peers currently, with its shares trading at 10.0x current year 2010 estimates, well below the group median of 18.7x. They held their rating of Neutral and Price Target of $20.