Cybersafety vendor NortonLifeLock on Thursday published its second-quarter financial results, reporting double-digit revenue growth and its eighth consecutive quarter of sequential customer growth.

Additionally, NortonLifeLock shareholders voted on Thursday overwhelmingly to support the company's proposed merger with Britain's Avast PLC. 

NortonLifeLock's non-GAAP diluted EPS was 43 cents on revenue of$695 million, up 11%.

NortonLifeLock

Finance

• Inflation is about to change grocery shopping for good
• The 5 best high-yield savings accounts: Not your standard savings
• How AI is making Gen Z the most financially sophisticated generation
• The 5 best credit cards you can (and should) keep forever
• Want a job in finance? Here are your options

Analysts were expecting earnings of 42 cents per share on revenue of$695.3 million. 

The company's direct customer count in the quarter came to 23.3 million, up 2.6 million. Its customer count has grown every quarter since it was separated from Symantec, the enterprise security business that Broadcom purchased in late 2019.

"When we became a standalone company, we said our focus is to make cyber safety available to as many people as possible," CEO Vincent Pilette said toZDNet. "There are 5 billion internet users, not all of them consciously protected against cyber-criminality... When you sum up people who consciously paid for cyber safety, we have less than 5% penetration. And so it's a long journey for us, and we're excited to go and tackle that big problem."

To grow its customer base, NortonLifeLock six months ago acquired Avira, which offered a freemium model, with the idea to make freemium versions of all of NortonLifeLock's products available to all Internet users. In August, the company announced its proposed merger with Avast, significantly expanding NortonLifeLock's geographic footprint. 

In the meantime, NortonLifeLock reported Q2 bookings of$681 million, up 7%. 

The direct average revenue per user was$8.85, up from$8.80 the prior quarter and down from$9.10 a year prior.

While the pandemic has driven up consumer awareness about cybersecurity, Pilette said that at this point, "our goals came down a little bit closer to normal," with more seasonality driving sales. After a slower summer, Pilette said the company saw September finish on a "very strong note," indicating the interest in cyber safety is still growing. 

For the third quarter, the company is expecting revenue in the range of$695 million to$705  million. Non-GAAP EPS is expected to be in the range of 42 cents to 44 cents.

NortonLifeLock also said Thursday its board of directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of$0.125 per common share to be paid on December 15.

Tech Earnings

SMART Global fiscal Q2 results, outlook top expectationsAdobe shares sag as outlook misses expectationsMicron stock jumps as fiscal Q2 results, outlook top expectationsOracle shares rebound, fiscal Q4 view tops expectationsPagerDuty stock surges as fiscal Q4 revenue, forecast top expectationsDocuSign shares plunge, Q1 and year views miss expectationsCrowdstrike reports Q4 revenue of$431 million and$1.45 billion for full yearBroadcom shares jump as fiscal Q1 results, outlook top expectations

• SMART Global fiscal Q2 results, outlook top expectations
• Adobe shares sag as outlook misses expectations
• Micron stock jumps as fiscal Q2 results, outlook top expectations
• Oracle shares rebound, fiscal Q4 view tops expectations
• PagerDuty stock surges as fiscal Q4 revenue, forecast top expectations
• DocuSign shares plunge, Q1 and year views miss expectations
• Crowdstrike reports Q4 revenue of$431 million and$1.45 billion for full year
• Broadcom shares jump as fiscal Q1 results, outlook top expectations