Morgan Stanley Remains Cautious on Symantec Corporation

In a report published Friday, Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss reiterated an Underweight rating and $18.00 price target on

. In the report, Morgan Stanley noted, “Q4 likely exceeded investors' worst fears for a quarter where a CEO was terminated. On the back of this solid print, interim CEO Michael Brown and new CFO Thomas Seifert laid out an aggressive program of further expense reductions, reorganizing business units (Norton separated again) and new product introductions. However, we fear the growth and margin targets laid out for FY15 may also prove aggressive. Our initial analysis suggests billings growth would need to accelerate to at least mid single digit growth (with ~15% license growth) in the back half of the year to hit the mid-point of the revenue guide. While comps get easier, Symantec still faces headwinds both externally (increasing competition / declining PCs) and internally (de-emphasizing product groups representing $2.7B or 40% of revenues). With significant transitions/challenges still ahead for Symantec and now with aggressive targets, we remain cautious on the shares.” Symantec Corporation closed on Thursday at $21.03.