Worms create rough ride for Symantec

Much of the enterprise growth came from antivirus software, as opposed to intrusion detection, security management and firewall protection products.

Consumer sales, meanwhile, got a boost from both Norton AntiVirus and Norton Internet Security products.

The reason? Viruses such as MSBlast, MyDoom, Bagle and NetSky, which struck last year.

"Symantec got swept up in something bigger than themselves," Smith Barney's Berquist said. "It pulled them off their plans they laid out over the past several years to build a balanced business."

Symantec declined to comment, citing the so-called quiet period prior to its earnings announcement.

Business plan
Enterprise administration software represents another strand of Symantec's business, but that segment has languished for a number of years. The third quarter was no different, in that revenue from those products increased a slight 2 percent to $53.3m and accounted for 11 percent of total revenue.

"Two years ago, the message from Symantec was they were working hard on their enterprise profile," said Daniel Cummins, an analyst with UBS. "They did a number of acquisitions and their [financial] numbers were good on their organic business. But as the acquisitions got folded in, we've seen a much softer growth rate."

Cummins noted he recently cut his stock recommendation on the company to "neutral" from "buy," in part because of anticipated weakness in the portion of Symantec's business that is not tied to antivirus software.