Gen Digital revenue rose 27% to $5.0B, mostly from the MoneyLion acquisition and a 53rd week; GAAP EPS of $1.57 (+52%) was lifted by a $354M legal reversal while non-GAAP operating margin fell to 50.9%.
Revenue
$5.0B
+27.1% YoY
Net income
$973M
+51.3% YoY
Diluted EPS
$1.57
+52.4% YoY
Operating margin
42.4%
Revenue up 27% to $5.0 billion, mostly from buying MoneyLion; a legal reversal inflated GAAP profit
Gen Digital, the company behind Norton, Avast, LifeLock and, since April 2025, the consumer-finance app MoneyLion, grew fiscal 2026 net revenue 27% to $5,000 million from $3,935 million. Most of that jump came from the acquisition, not from the existing business. The 10-K credits $823 million of the $1,065 million increase to MoneyLion, which Gen closed on April 17, 2025. Another $87 million came from calendar quirks: fiscal 2026 ran 53 weeks against 52 the year before. Gen's fiscal year ends on the Friday closest to March 31, so every few years one year picks up an extra week.
Take out MoneyLion and the extra week and, by our arithmetic from the 10-K's figures, revenue grew about 4% ($5,000M − $823M − $87M = $4,090M vs. $3,935M). That low single-digit rate is closer to the underlying growth of the legacy business than the 27% headline.
Profit rose even faster than revenue. GAAP net income climbed 51% to $973 million and diluted EPS rose 52% to $1.57. A large part of that came from one legal item: in the fourth quarter Gen cut its estimated loss in a long-running patent case brought by Columbia University by $354 million, after an appeals court sent the damages award back to the lower court for reconsideration. That reversal was booked as a credit in general and administrative expense, so G&A was a negative $87 million for the year (vs. $291 million of expense in fiscal 2025).
Key figures
Metric
FY2026
FY2025
YoY Change
Net revenue
$5,000M
$3,935M
+27.1%
GAAP operating income
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*Non-GAAP figures are from Gen's Q4 FY2026 earnings release (8-K Exhibit 99.1, May 7, 2026), not the 10-K. They exclude stock-based compensation, amortization of acquired intangibles, restructuring, and litigation items, among others. Bookings are orders received that should turn into revenue later. They matter for a subscription business because customers often pay up front for a year.
Takeaway: Gen's two margin measures moved in opposite directions, which shows what MoneyLion changed. GAAP operating margin (the share of revenue left after running the business, before interest and tax) rose to 42.4%, but only because of the $354 million Columbia reversal; without it, by our arithmetic, GAAP operating income would have been $1,766M, a 35.3% margin. Gen's own non-GAAP margin, which strips out legal items and acquisition accounting, fell 7.5 points to 50.9%. The acquisition made Gen larger, and it now earns a smaller share of each dollar of revenue.
Two segments, very different economics
After the MoneyLion deal Gen started reporting two segments. Cyber Safety Platform covers antivirus, security suites and privacy products (Norton, Avast, VPNs). Trust-Based Solutions covers identity-theft protection (LifeLock), reputation services, and financial wellness: MoneyLion's own products plus its "Engine" loan and credit-card marketplace.
Segment
FY2026 revenue
FY2025 revenue
Change
FY2026 segment operating margin
FY2025 segment operating margin
Cyber Safety Platform
$3,339M
$3,176M
+5.1%
61.1%
60.2%
Trust-Based Solutions
$1,661M
$759M
+118.8%
30.2%
51.0%
Segment margins are our calculation from Note 17 of the 10-K (segment operating income ÷ segment revenue): $2,041M / $3,339M and $502M / $1,661M for FY2026; $1,911M / $3,176M and $387M / $759M for FY2025. Segment operating income excludes intangible amortization, stock-based compensation and unallocated costs such as litigation, which sit in a "Corporate" line (−$423M in FY2026, −$688M in FY2025).
Cyber Safety grew slowly and stayed highly profitable. The 10-K attributes the $163 million increase to "growth across our cyber safety membership offerings and the additional week." The extra week alone contributed $56 million, so growth excluding it was about 3.4% (our arithmetic). Its segment margin edged up to 61%.
Trust-Based Solutions more than doubled, but its margin fell from 51% to 30%. Revenue rose $902 million, of which $823 million was MoneyLion. The rest, by our arithmetic, is about $79 million, including $31 million from the extra week, and the 10-K attributes it to "continued growth in our identity point solutions." Lending and cash-advance businesses have higher costs than software subscriptions. Cost of revenue rose $301 million (+39%), which the 10-K attributes mainly to a $197 million increase in partner revenue share "mainly in Trust-Based Solutions" and $58 million more in payment-processing fees.
The MoneyLion cost worth understanding: Instacash
MoneyLion's Instacash product gives users small cash advances ahead of payday. Gen doesn't keep these advances on its balance sheet. It sells them to an outside buyer (Sound Point Capital) under a purchase agreement, and it sold $4,126 million of them in fiscal 2026. The sales come at a discount to face value, and Gen recorded a $205 million loss on the mark-to-market and sale of Instacash Advances, which it books in sales and marketing expense rather than cost of revenue. That single item is the largest reason sales and marketing rose 65% to $1,228 million. The other drivers the 10-K lists are $142 million more in marketing, $67 million in headcount and $46 million in stock-based compensation. Gen earned $59 million in servicing fees on those sold advances, recorded in revenue. The external auditor also flagged the Instacash accounting as a critical audit matter because of the judgment involved.
Customers and what's not disclosed
Gen reported 79 million paid customers at year-end, up from 68 million, out of about 500 million total users. The definition changed with MoneyLion. It now counts anyone with a paid subscription or at least one revenue-generating transaction in the trailing period, such as someone who took an Instacash advance or got a loan through the marketplace. So the 11 million increase mostly reflects the acquisition and the new counting method, not 11 million new antivirus subscribers.
Gen's 10-K and Q4 release do not disclose ARPU (average revenue per user) or a customer retention rate for fiscal 2026. The 10-K discusses retention only as a risk factor. Readers can't directly check whether existing subscribers are paying more or renewing at higher rates, so segment revenue growth is the best available proxy.
Direct revenue (sold through Gen's own websites and apps) was $4,137 million, up from $3,463 million. Partner revenue (retailers, telecoms, employee-benefit plans and the lending marketplace) rose faster, to $863 million from $472 million, which the 10-K ties partly to marketplace products. The Americas rose to 71% of revenue from 66%, which the filing attributes to MoneyLion's U.S. customer base.
Below the operating line: debt, tax and investments
Interest expense was $569 million, about 11% of revenue, down slightly from $578 million. That is roughly a quarter of GAAP operating income, so debt service is a large fixed claim on profits.
Investment write-downs of $79 million on private-company stakes (vs. $30 million) pushed non-operating expense up $28 million overall.
Effective tax rate was 36% (vs. 38%), well above the U.S. statutory 21%. The 10-K cites U.S. taxation of foreign earnings and changes in unrecognized tax benefits. Gen also carries $1,584 million of long-term income taxes payable that it can't schedule.
Balance sheet, leverage and shareholder returns
As of April 3, 2026
Amount
Term loans
$5,825M
Senior notes
$2,450M
Total debt (principal)
$8,275M
Cash and equivalents (excl. restricted)
$402M
Undrawn revolving credit facility
$1,495M
Total debt was about 3.3x fiscal 2026 non-GAAP operating income of $2,543 million. That is our calculation, not the covenant ratio the credit agreement uses. Gen says it was in compliance with all covenants. Of the debt, $5,825 million carries floating rates tied to SOFR, and the 10-K estimates a 1-point move in rates would change annual interest expense by $58 million. Cash fell from $1,006 million to $411 million (including restricted cash). The main uses were $1,032 million paid for acquisitions (net of cash acquired), mainly MoneyLion, whose total consideration was about $951 million net of cash acquired, plus buybacks and debt repayments.
Gen returned $1,091 million to shareholders and bondholders, as it describes it:
Buybacks: 25 million shares for $634 million (vs. 11 million shares for $272 million in FY2025). Diluted share count fell to 619 million from 624 million. $2,094 million of authorization remained.
Dividends: $312 million, at $0.125 per share each quarter.
Net debt paydown: $145 million. Gen also refinanced much of its term debt during the year, issuing a $2,741 million Extended Term Loan A and a $750 million Incremental Term Loan B.
Free cash flow (operating cash flow minus capital spending, a non-GAAP measure from the earnings release) was $1,523 million, up from $1,206 million. That is well above net income, because much of the expense is non-cash intangible amortization and stock compensation.
Outlook, and what the first quarter of fiscal 2027 showed
Guidance. In the May 7, 2026 earnings release, Gen guided fiscal 2027 non-GAAP revenue to $5,325–5,425 million and non-GAAP EPS to $2.85–2.95. It raised both on August 6, 2026 (Q1 FY2027 earnings release, 8-K Exhibit 99.1) to $5,375–5,475 million and $2.87–2.97. The midpoint of the raised revenue range ($5,425M) is about 8.5% above FY2026 revenue. Fiscal 2027 has no extra week, so comparable growth would be somewhat higher.
Q1 FY2027 (quarter ended July 3, 2026), from the 10-Q filed August 7, 2026:
Q1 FY2027 metric
Q1 FY27
Q1 FY26
Change
Net revenue
$1,336M
$1,257M
+6.3%
Cyber Safety Platform revenue
$846M
$869M
−2.6%
Trust-Based Solutions revenue
$490M
$388M
+26.3%
GAAP operating income
$443M
$446M
−0.7%
GAAP net income
$215M
$135M
+59.3%
GAAP diluted EPS
$0.36
$0.22
+63.6%
Paid customers
81M
76M
+5M
Total debt (principal)
$8,230M
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The 6% reported growth understates the underlying pace. The prior-year quarter had 14 weeks and included the extra week's $87 million. The 10-Q says Cyber Safety's $23 million decline reflects that $56 million extra-week comparison, "partially offset by growth across our Cyber Safety membership offerings." Adjusting for the extra week and for MoneyLion's pre-acquisition stub period, the earnings release puts non-GAAP revenue growth at 11% and non-GAAP EPS at $0.71 (+19%). The non-GAAP margin was 50.0%, about the full-year FY2026 level, which suggests the MoneyLion-driven margin reset has stabilised rather than continued. GAAP net income rose faster than operating income for two reasons: interest expense fell to $124 million from $156 million, and income tax dropped to $108 million from $165 million, which the 10-Q attributes mainly to foreign-currency effects on tax balances. Restructuring rose to $32 million, as the 10-Q cites a new Fiscal 2027 Plan. Gen repurchased 4 million shares for $100 million in the quarter and kept the $0.125 quarterly dividend.
Our read. Gen is now two businesses. One is a slow-growing, very profitable subscription security franchise that grows low single digits once calendar effects are removed. The other is a faster-growing fintech arm with roughly half the margin, plus credit and funding exposure through Instacash and the lending marketplace. The raised guidance and Q1's 11% adjusted growth suggest MoneyLion is adding growth as intended. The risks to watch are the Trust-Based Solutions margin, the cost of selling Instacash advances if consumer credit weakens, and the still-open Columbia case, where Gen says a loss above its remaining $254 million accrual is reasonably possible but can't be estimated. With $8.2 billion of debt and only about $0.4–0.6 billion of cash, how Gen splits free cash flow between buybacks and debt repayment will shape how resilient the balance sheet is.