By Andrea Quong

Symantec shares rose 2.5 percent in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company announced $200 million worth of cost cuts and edged out analysts’ revised estimates for third quarter earnings.

Excluding certain adjustments, the Cupertino, California-based security giant reported fiscal third-quarter earnings of $248 million, or $0.26 per share, compared to $282 million, also at $0.26 per share, for the same quarter last year. Those results slightly beat analysts’ estimates of $0.25 per share, according to Thompson Financial. Symantec reported third quarter revenues of $1.31 billion.

Net income for the fiscal third quarter was $114 million, or $0.12 per share, compared to $91 million, or $0.08 per share, during the same period last year.

Symantec’s announcement came a week after Symantec lowered its guidance for net income to between $0.10 and $0.11 per share from $0.14 and $0.15 per share. At that time, CEO and Chairman John W. Thompson attributed the lower-than-expected earnings to “weaker than expected performance” in the company’s data center management business.

Symantec also announced cost-cutting measures, which it expects will save $200 million per year and, at best, could help the company find profit margins of 28 percent, according to the company.

But analysts remained cautious. “A mild positive but credibility is extremely shaken” was how Sarah Friar, an analyst with Goldman Sachs, described the situation in a research note Wednesday.

Symantec reaffirmed its revised guidance announced Tuesday for the fiscal fourth quarter, ending in March, for sales of between $1.24 and $1.27 billion and earnings per share of between $0.04 and $0.06 earnings per share.

Symantec’s stock rose $0.44 to $17.92 from $17.48 in after-hours trading Wednesday.

Symantec’s troubles stem from its data center management business, which recorded third-quarter sales of $343 million, slightly higher than revised estimates of $340 million according to Goldman Sachs. But it fell well short of Goldman’s original project of $385 million and, in any case, tumbled 9 percent compared to the same quarter last year.

By contrast, Symantec’s consumer business was strong, bringing in $409 million in revenue, up 24 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Symantec’s suffering data center management business brings in 26 percent of its total revenue, while its thriving consumer business nets 31 percent, according to the firm.