Shares of Symantec Corporation SYMC, a cyber security firm, have been performing well of late.

If you haven’t taken advantage of the share price appreciation yet, its time you add the stock to your portfolio, as it looks promising and is poised to maintain the momentum. This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock has an estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 10.3% and a market cap of $18.92 billion.

Estimates Northbound

Estimates for Symantec have moved up in the last 60 days, reflecting the optimistic outlook of analysts. Also, the earnings estimates for fiscal 2018 and 2019 have gone up in the same time frame.

For fiscal 2018, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings has gone up 3.7% in the last 60 days and is pegged at $1.13, which indicates a positive for the company. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2019 also moved north 12 cents (9.2%) to $1.43 during the same time frame.

Outpacing the Industry

Symantec has outperformed the Zacks categorized Computer-Software industry in the last one year. Share price of Symantec has increased 52.9% compared with the industry’s gain of just 27.6%.

Valuation

On the valuation front too, the stock looks attractive. The company currently trades at a forward P/E multiple of 27.5x, significantly lower than the Zacks industry’s average of 36.3x. The ratio, which is obtained by dividing a stock’s current market price with its historical or estimated earnings, measures how much an investor needs to shell out per dollar of earnings. Therefore, the lower the P/E of a stock, the better for a value investor.

Growth Drivers

Symantec provides a wide range of content security and information backup solutions to individuals and enterprises. Moreover, the company’s mobile and cloud security products are gradually gaining market acceptance. The storage and server management business provides recovery solutions and heterogeneous storage-end server platforms. We believe that these innovative products and solutions will help Symantec win customers, thus increasing its business volume.

In an effort to recapture its momentum in the fast growing cybersecurity market, the company has resorted to acquisitions. Most recently, Symantec inked a deal to acquire Skycure, an Israel-based company. The buyout was aimed at providing security service against mobile threats and malwares across multiple devices like Apple’s AAPL iOS, Microsoft’s MSFT Windows and Android.

The company also inked a deal to acquire Fireglass, an Israel-based company, which helps organizations in protecting confidential information from any device by eliminating malware from web and email without any endpoint software. Last year, Symantec acquired Blue Coat, Inc., a leading web security solution provider, from private equity firm Bain Capital. Blue Coat’s security solutions allow organizations to protect their web gateways from cyber-attacks. Addition of Blue Coat is expected to enhance Symantec’s capabilities significantly.

We believe that these acquisitions will enable the company to increase its scale of operations, gain customers and enhance its technological expertise.

Moreover, investment in growth areas such as Enterprise Backup, Storage Management and Security businesses are likely to boost Symantec’s long-term prospects. Additionally, restructuring initiatives and synergies from buyouts are expected to support the company’s bottom line.

Stock to Consider

Another top-ranked stock in the broader technology includes Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. AAOI, sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Applied Optoelectronics, has a long-term EPS growth rate of 18.75%.

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