NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Symantec closed up 5.6% to $25.58 with heavy trading volume Friday following a Wall Street Journal report that the cybersecurity company is exploring a sale of its Veritas business. The data storage and recovery business could potentially sell for more than $8 billion, according to the Journal. Symantec reportedly contacted private equity firms and other companies in the industry about selling Veritas. Potential buyers contacted Symantec about buying the business before t start contact bidders, according to the Journal. While Symantec is reportedly interested in selling the business, a deal may not happen. Taxes related to separating Veritas from Symantec may be an obstacle for any potential deal. About 11.6 shares of Symantec were traded during trading hours Friday, compared to the company's average trading volume of about 4 million shares a day. TheStreet Ratings team rates SYMANTEC CORP as a Buy with a ratings score of B+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate SYMANTEC CORP (SYMC) a BUY. This is driven by a few notable strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, notable return on equity, reasonable valuation levels, good cash flow from operations and solid stock price performance. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.35, is low and is below the industry average, implying that there has been successful management of debt levels. Along with the favorable debt-to-equity ratio, the company maintains an adequate quick ratio of 1.12, which illustrates the ability to avoid short-term cash problems. The return on equity has improved slightly when compared to the same quarter one year prior. This can be construed as a modest strength in the organization. Compared to other companies in the Software industry and the overall market, SYMANTEC CORP's return on equity exceeds that of both the industry average and the S&P 500. Net operating cash flow has slightly increased to $358.00 million or 8.81% when compared to the same quarter last year. The firm also exceeded the industry average cash flow growth rate of -7.28%. Looking at where the stock is today compared to one year ago, we find that it is not only higher, but it has also clearly outperformed the rise in the S&P 500 over the same period, despite the company's weak earnings results. Turning our attention to the future direction of the stock, it goes without saying that even the best stocks can fall in an overall down market. However, in any other environment, this stock still has good upside potential despite the fact that it has already risen in the past year. You can view the full analysis from the report here: SYMC Ratings Report Must Read: Warren Buffett's Top 25 Stocks for 2015
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