Symantec Shares Rise on SaaS Revenue Plan

Shares of Symantec (SYMC Quote) rose Friday after the security specialist vowed to bring in more revenue through Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

Symantec CEO Enrique Salem outlined his plan to boost sales during the company's financial analyst day Thursday, with Web-based software services a key priority.

"We have got a tremendous opportunity to go into our customers that have been using our on-premise solutions and enabling them to take advantage of our SaaS capabilities," he said. "We're targeting that to be 15 percent of our total revenue in the next five years."

Specifically Symantec will be offering archiving, Web security, endpoint management, and data loss prevention via SaaS, according to Salem.

Salem, who took the company's reins from John Thompson earlier this year, explained that Symantec will also be looking to cross-sell between its archiving and backup software, as well as targeting small- to medium-size businesses.

Symantec's shares rose 35 cents, or 2.2%, to $16.23 following the news, reversing the broader decline in tech stocks that saw the Nasdaq fall 1.31%.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company also gave an update on its margins during its annual analyst meeting. Symantec CFO James Beer promised that the firm's fiscal 2010 margin will be 'stable' compared to 2009, when its non-GAAP operating margin was 30.2%.

Like many software companies, Symantec has had to endure a tough few months, and the firm missed Wall Street's sales forecast in its recent fourth-quarter results.

Weighed down by foreign exchange pressures and a tighter IT spending climate, Symantec's stock initially took a pounding in the aftermath of its results. At least one analyst, however, thinks that the firm is on the right track.