McAfee Advances the Most in 21 Months as Forecast Allays Growth Concerns

McAfee Inc., the second-largest maker of security software, rose the most in 21 months in New York trading after the company’s forecast allayed investors’ concerns about slowing growth.

McAfee jumped $2.85, or 9.4 percent, to $33.10 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, the biggest gain since October 2008.

The company’s results contrasted with those of bigger rival Symantec Corp., which dropped the most in a year yesterday, a day after forecasting sales and profit that missed analysts’ estimates. McAfee is poised to take advantage of “modestly” improving information-technology spending, Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets, said today in a research note.

“We would characterize last night’s quarter and outlook as ’better than feared’ by many on the Street,” Ives said. Management has created a dynamic “that should put the company back on its path toward double-digit growth.”

Second-quarter profit excluding some items was 63 cents a share, McAfee reported. That topped the 60-cent average of analysts’ projections compiled by Bloomberg.

This quarter, profit on that basis will be 62 cents to 66 cents a share, McAfee said. Analysts predicted 65 cents. Sales for the period will be $505 million to $520 million, the company said.

McAfee’s business is “beginning to show signs of stabilization and improvement heading into” the second half, Israel Hernandez, an analyst at Barclays Capital Inc., wrote today in a note.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Ricadela in San Francisco at aricadela@bloomberg.net

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