Gen Digital to Report Q1 Earnings: What's in Store for the Stock?

Gen Digital Inc. GEN is scheduled to report first-quarter fiscal 2026 results on Aug. 7, after market close.

GEN expects non-GAAP revenues in the band of $1.18-$1.21 billion for the quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is pegged at $1.18 billion, indicating 22.4% year-over-year growth.

For the fiscal first quarter, Gen Digital expects non-GAAP earnings in the range of 59-61 cents per share. The consensus mark for the same is pegged at 60 cents per share, suggesting a year-over-year rise of 13.2%. The estimate remained unchanged for the past 60 days.

GEN’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the trailing four quarters and matched twice, the average surprise being 0.9%.

Gen Digital Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Gen Digital Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Gen Digital Inc. Quote

Factors Likely to Influence GEN’s Q1 Results

Gen Digital’s first-quarter fiscal 2026 performance is likely to have benefited from the rise in demand for cybersecurity-related products, driven by a massive increase in global hacking events. Its persistent effort to offer innovative solutions that meet the consumer needs for security, identity and privacy is enabling the company to gain new clients. In the fourth quarter, Gen Digital’s average direct paying customer count increased 300,000 sequentially to an impressive 40.4 million.

Product momentum in the quarter is likely to be supported by continued adoption of Norton 360 and the addition of Genie Scam Protection, an AI-powered feature launched in the fourth quarter that significantly improved scam detection and helped drive customer upgrades to higher-tier memberships. Our first-quarter estimate for Gen Digital’s Consumer Security segment’s revenues is pegged at $730.9 million, indicating a year-over-year increase of 20.4%. Our estimate of $440.8 million for the Identity and Information Protection division implies growth of 28.1% from the year-ago quarter.

An increase in client bookings, supported by strong retention, international expansion and strategic partnerships, is likely to have aided top-line growth in the fiscal first quarter. Robust demand for identity theft protection solutions, dark web monitoring, social media monitoring, stolen wallet assistant and ID restoration is expected to have been positive for the quarter under review. 

Nonetheless, GEN’s fiscal first-quarter performance is likely to have been impacted by the decline in IT spending. The combination of persistently high interest rates and continuing inflation is expected to have affected consumer spending. Additionally, enterprises are deferring their substantial IT investments due to a faltering global economy, which is compounded by ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges.

Earnings Whispers for GEN Stock

Our proven model conclusively predicts an earnings beat for Gen Digital this time. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. That is the exact case here.

Gen Digital has an Earnings ESP of 1.67% and a Zacks Rank #3 at present. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they are reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Other Stocks to Consider

Here are some other companies worth considering, as our model indicates that they also possess the right combination of factors to exceed earnings expectations in their upcoming releases:

Arista Networks ANET has an Earnings ESP of +0.96% and sports a Zacks Rank #1 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Arista Networks shares have appreciated 6.3% year to date. Arista Networks is set to report its second-quarter 2025 results on Aug. 5.

Bumble BMBL presently has an Earnings ESP of +37.01% and sports a Zacks Rank #1. 

Bumble shares have lost 6.8% year to date. Bumble is scheduled to report its second-quarter 2025 results on Aug. 6.

MKS Inc. MKSI currently has an Earnings ESP of +1.33% and sports a Zacks Rank #1.

MKS shares are down 11.2% year to date. MKS is set to report its second-quarter 2025 results on Aug. 6.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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