SAN JOSE, USA: Symantec Corp, the world's biggest software security company, should benefit from Intel Corp's acquisition of McAfee Inc, UBS said, and upgraded the stock to 'buy' from 'neutral.'

The deal should aid Symantec's organic business as smaller rival McAfee will likely become less aggressive on pricing, UBS said. It cut its rating on McAfee by a notch to 'neutral.'

"Enterprise customers will increasingly choose Symantec as a safe-haven with McAfee's M&A uncertainty and M&A distractions could see McAfee take their eye off the execution ball," the brokerage said.

With Symantec shares trading at 8.2 times the company's expected per-share 2012 estimates, close to their five-year low, its management will be under pressure to unlock the seemingly unrecognized value in its own business, possibly through storage asset sales, UBS said.

If Symantec valuation remains near five-year lows it increases the probability of a strategic buyer -- such as Oracle Corp , IBM Corp, Cisco Systems Inc or Hewlett-Packard Co -- acquiring the company and its meaningful security/storage portfolio, UBS said.

"With two deals in the security space already announced this week, we expect a robust second-half M&A landscape," UBS said. "Collision between hardware/software is a common theme and we expect more combinations going forward," it added.

Intel on Thursday announced a $7.7 billion bid for McAfee, after Hewlett-Packard this week bought Fortify Software, which sells compliance and anti-attack software to companies, for an undisclosed sum.

Symantec itself has been on the acquisition trail. In June, it bought PGP Corp and GuardianEdge, two privately held companies focusing on email and data encryption, for an undisclosed sum. This month, it closed its deal to buy Verisign Inc's payment authentication unit for about $1.3 billion.

Symantec shares, which have fallen 30 percent since their 52-week high in January, closed at $13.37 Thursday on Nasdaq.