ThinkEquity has initiated coverage of Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ:SYMC) with a buy rating, citing its portfolio of stable, cash-generating businesses and more vibrant growth strategies.

We think Symantec's efforts to build breadth and depth with assets in security, storage, data governance, compliance, and client device management can pay off over time, analyst Daniel Cummins wrote in a note to clients.

The analyst believes SYMC shares significantly discount the overall maturity of Norton antivirus, though the company continues to generate substantial cash from those businesses.

Symantec is making substantive progress, evolving its client security businesses in order to keep pace with change, such as the adoption of mobile computing.

We see particular product strategies such as compliance, encryption, and electronic discovery tools as already benefitting from a virtuous circle of cross-market demand, said Cummins.

The analyst said Symantec is geared to high revenue-share businesses in large markets, which is expected to grow largely in line with global IT spending. The company's diverse addressable markets are estimated to be in the range of $20 billion to $25 billion.

Cummins added that Symantec is pursuing a sound convergence strategy and was early in anticipating a meaningful link between storage and security markets.

We believe Symantec should consider some divestiture options, and could benefit from a tighter focus in enterprise markets. We believe there are assets in the portfolio, such as the high-margin consumer business, which could be considered as a possible source of funds to re-dedicate the business exclusively to enterprise security and compliance strategies, said the analyst.

Shares of California-based Symantec closed Friday's regular trading session at $16.98 while the analyst has a $20 price target on the stock.

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