Cybersecurity company Symantec Corp. saw its stock price jump almost 8 percent in after hours-trading Thursday after beating expectations on both profits and guidance.

Symantec reported a fiscal second-quarter net loss of $8 million, or a penny per share. Earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation came in at 42 cents per share, on revenue of $1.18 billion.

The results easily beat Wall Street’s forecast of earnings of 33 cents per share on revenue of $1.14 billion.

Symantec’s brightest spot was the strong performance of its Consumer Digital Safety business unit, which saw revenue jump 8.5 percent to $601 million, from $554 million one year before. Enterprise Security sales, on the other hand, fell by 16.3 percent to $574 million, from $686 million the year before.

“In our Consumer Digital Safety business, our platform strategy allows us to transcend hardware refresh cycles and bring enhanced value to our customers,” Symantec Chief Executive Greg Clark said in a statement. “Global cyber risk is unprecedented. Symantec’s significant investments in cyber defense make us an essential partner for enterprises and consumers of all sizes.”

In a conference call with analysts following the results, Clark was more eager to talk about the strength of Symantec’s endpoint security products, which are sold under its Enterprise Security division. Although the business unit saw revenues fall compared to one year ago, Clark insisted the company had enjoyed some “good wins” in the endpoint space, including stealing some accounts from its rivals.

Clark noted that Symantec’s endpoint security products were ranked No. 1 overall in the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms. He said the company “excels” at protecting enterprise endpoints from malware thanks to a combination of its traditional protection and detection-based technologies and its newer artificial intelligence components.

“If you look at some of the other, bigger players in the effectiveness of endpoint, we are a lot, lot better,” Clark told analysts during the call. “So I believe that some of the growth we’re seeing in the other startup companies that are executing reasonably well is coming out of other people’s share.”

Clark said this was all the more significant considering the stiff competition it faces in endpoint security from heavily funded startups such as Carbon Black Inc. and CrowdStrike Inc.

For its fiscal third quarter, Symantec said it’s expecting earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation of 37 cents to 41 cents per share on sales of between $1.16 billion to $1.19 billion. Analysts had forecast earnings of 39 cents per share on revenue of $1.19 billion.

For the full year, Symantec now expects a profit of between $1.47 to $1.57 per share on revenue of $4.67 billion to $4.79 billion.

Photo: Symantec