Gen Digital NASDAQ: GEN reported what executives described as its strongest fiscal year in a decade, driven by growth in both its core consumer cybersecurity business and an expanding portfolio of trust-based solutions that includes identity protection, financial wellness, and a growing marketplace business.
On the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter 2026 earnings call, CEO Vincent Pilette said fiscal 2026 represented a “defining year” for the company, highlighting “plus 10% bookings, plus 9% revenue, plus 15% EPS” on a pro forma basis. CFO Natalie Derse added that total revenue reached a record $5 billion for the year, marking the first time Gen crossed that threshold.
Fiscal 2026 results: bookings, revenue, margins, and cash flow
Derse said fiscal 2026 bookings were $5.1 billion, up 28% as reported and up 10% pro forma. Revenue reached $5 billion, up 27% as reported and up 9% pro forma, exceeding company guidance. Operating income was $2.5 billion, representing a 51% operating margin, and non-GAAP EPS was $2.56, up 15% year-over-year and “at the high end of our guidance,” she said.
Free cash flow totaled $1.5 billion, which Derse said represented “over 30% of revenue” and was up 26% year-over-year. Gen also reduced its share count by 15 million shares over the year and reached 3x net leverage “a year ahead of schedule,” according to both Pilette and Derse.
Pilette framed the company’s evolution as a shift from a pure-play consumer cybersecurity vendor to a broader platform spanning “security, privacy, identity, reputation, financial protection, and empowerment,” supported by a shared data platform and “agentic AI.” He said the company has more than doubled revenue over six years, nearly tripled EPS, and returned $6 billion to shareholders.
Segment performance: Cyber Safety steady, Trust-Based Solutions accelerating
Gen reported results across two segments: Cyber Safety and Trust-Based Solutions. Pilette characterized Cyber Safety as a $3.3 billion franchise growing at a mid-single-digit rate, while Trust-Based Solutions is “nearing $1.7 billion” and growing 20%+ in key categories.
Derse provided pro forma segment growth rates for fiscal 2026:
- Cyber Safety: bookings up 5% and revenue up 3% pro forma; segment margin of 61%.
- Trust-Based Solutions: bookings up 24% and revenue up 23% pro forma; segment margin of 30%.
In the fiscal fourth quarter, Derse said bookings were $1.36 billion, up 27% as reported and up 10% pro forma, while revenue was $1.28 billion, up 27% as reported and up 9% pro forma. Q4 operating income was $641 million, up 9% year-over-year, for a 50% operating margin. Q4 diluted non-GAAP EPS was $0.67, up 14% year-over-year and above guidance, she said.
Customer metrics also continued to trend upward. Derse said paid customers totaled 79 million, up from 78 million the prior quarter and 68 million a year earlier. Pilette added that cyber safety subscribers grew sequentially for 10 consecutive quarters, while ARPU and retention improved across cohorts.
Product and platform highlights: scams, identity, financial wellness, and Engine
Pilette argued that cybersecurity and financial protection are increasingly linked, saying that “every malicious agent, deepfake, or scam ultimately targets one thing: money.” He said Gen’s platform integrates cyber safety and financial protection “as one defense,” and pointed to “Genie,” its AI scam detection engine, as being embedded across Norton 360, Avast, and “partners like ChatGPT.”
He also cited engagement and distribution indicators, including record cross-sell performance in Norton, a near doubling of Norton 360 NPS year-over-year, and LLM-related traffic growth. “Norton appears in 34% of tracked non-browser GPT prompts ahead of our nearest competitors,” Pilette said, adding that “LLM-driven traffic” was up 62% year-over-year.
Within Trust-Based Solutions, executives highlighted three core areas: LifeLock, MoneyLion, and Engine by Gen.
On LifeLock, Pilette said the company launched a refreshed, mobile-first app experience and a simplified tiered lineup. He said the “reimagined experience is live with approximately 3 million customers,” with NPS at 73 (up four points year-over-year) and retention “touching 90%.” Pilette also said LifeLock mobile revenue grew almost 50% and linked financial monitoring accounts rose nearly 25%.
On MoneyLion, Pilette said the business exceeded expectations in its first full fiscal year under Gen, delivering “over 40% revenue growth,” with a record Q4 led by Instacash and Credit Builder. Derse said MoneyLion saw record origination volumes in Q4 and noted that more than two-thirds of first-party MoneyLion revenue came from repeat customers.
On financial engagement across Gen’s base, Pilette said a third of the paid base now engages with financial wellness. He added that connected financial accounts hit “107 million in Q4,” up 36% year-over-year, and said those connections help enable personalized offers and credit cross-sell through Gen’s Engine marketplace.
Engine by Gen also posted growth, with Pilette saying it delivered record revenue and signed “over 30 new partnerships in Q4 alone,” while processing “nearly 400 million annual inquiries” and tripling revenue over three years. He highlighted several recent developments, including Equifax embedding Engine into myequifax.com, Engine becoming a multi-category financial offer provider within Microsoft Copilot and related surfaces, and expansion into insurance through an “embedded insurance marketplace technology” and the Trellis acquisition.
AI strategy and partnerships: Agent Trust Hub, Norton Neo, and model providers
Pilette positioned Gen’s AI strategy around creating a “trust layer” for AI agents that can browse and transact on behalf of consumers. He said the company formed an “AI foundry” team and pointed to Norton Neo, an AI-native secure browser, as an example of a product designed for an agentic world, including an “agentic VPN.”
He also disclosed partnerships across model providers. Pilette said Gen announced a partnership with xAI to co-architect AI-native products, including “a digital concierge for Norton subscribers launching this summer.” He added that Gen joined OpenAI’s “trusted access for cyber” and plans to leverage “the advanced defense capabilities of their latest GPT-5.5,” while also working with Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google.
In Q&A, Pilette said working with frontier models does not require Gen to develop the models itself and “does not have an impact on CapEx.” He noted there will be a per-usage cost associated with model usage, adding Gen will not have “the same profit margin than cyber safety business,” while it intends to monetize through membership as products deliver more value.
Outlook: raised fiscal 2027 guidance and capital allocation
Management raised its fiscal 2027 outlook. Pilette said Gen is “raising our outlook to 8%-10% revenue growth and mid-teens EPS growth,” compared with prior midterm targets of mid-single-digit revenue growth and 12%-15% earnings growth.
Derse provided specific guidance ranges:
- Fiscal 2027 revenue: $5.325 billion to $5.425 billion (8%-10% pro forma growth).
- Fiscal 2027 non-GAAP EPS: $2.85 to $2.95 (13%-17% pro forma growth; 15% at the midpoint).
- Q1 fiscal 2027 revenue: $1.3 billion to $1.325 billion (8%-10% pro forma growth).
- Q1 fiscal 2027 non-GAAP EPS: $0.68 to $0.70 (13%-17% pro forma growth).
On margins, Derse said Gen is operating at roughly a 50% overall margin, with Cyber Safety at 61% and Trust-Based Solutions at 30%, and she does not expect “significant change in margin architecture” in the near term. She said the company plans to keep investing in innovation, marketing, AI initiatives, and synergy efforts while continuing to drive efficiencies, noting G&A runs at less than 3% of revenue.
On capital allocation, Derse said Gen will maintain a balanced approach across share repurchases, debt reduction, tuck-in M&A, and disciplined investment in innovation. She said Gen has $2.1 billion remaining under its share repurchase authorization. The board approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.125 per share payable June 10, 2026, to shareholders of record as of May 18, 2026.
In closing remarks, Pilette referenced Gen’s transformation since the sale of Symantec’s enterprise business to Broadcom, saying the company is “bigger than Symantec at the time,” while “growing 4x faster at 3x more profit,” and thanked investors and employees for their support of the company’s strategy.
About Gen Digital NASDAQ: GEN
Gen Digital NASDAQ: GEN is a global cybersecurity company specializing in consumer- and small-business-focused security, privacy, and identity protection solutions. The company offers a suite of products designed to safeguard devices, networks, and personal information against malware, ransomware, phishing attacks and other digital threats. With a focus on user-friendly interfaces and cross-platform compatibility, Gen Digital develops antivirus software, VPN services, parental controls, password management tools, and comprehensive identity-theft monitoring services.
Gen Digital traces its origins to the consumer software division of Symantec Corporation, which was spun off in late 2019 under the NortonLifeLock name.
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