Symantec (SYMC) showed signs of progress in its transition despite a fiscal Q4 miss late Thursday, but the company has a long ways to go, analysts said in research reports Friday. Analysts cited progress in sales growth and profit margins as Symantec gets ready to split into two publicly traded companies. “With Symantec in transition and with separation pending, fiscal Q4 constant-currency growth was lackluster, which was roughly in line with
Tech research firm Gartner (IT) got a downgrade from Goldman Sachs on Friday, sending its stock down a fraction in morning trading. Analyst Andre Benjamin downgraded Gartner to neutral from buy, as the stock is nearing his price target of 90. “There is no change to our favorable view of Gartner’s fundamentals,” he wrote in his research note. “We simply now see better upside and near-term catalysts for other buy-rated stocks under coverage.” One
While Apple (AAPL) says just 20% of iPhone users have upgraded to iPhone 6 series handsets, the percentage is twice that in the U.S., a new study indicates. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners on Friday said 40% of the 94 million iPhone users in the U.S. have upgraded to Apple’s newest handsets, with 25 million people using the iPhone 6 and 13 million using the iPhone 6 Plus. “In the quarterly investor call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, ‘There’s a lot of people that haven’t upgraded to a 6 and 6 Plus,'” Josh Lowitz, CIRP partner and co-founder, said in a statement. “We see 56 million U.S. iPhone owners with older models who are potential upgraders.” Apple has sold 38 million iPhone 6 series handsets in the U.S. from the September launch through March, CIRP said. By comparison, Apple sold 18 million iPhone 5S handsets during the year-earlier…