diff --git a/libfdt/fdt_overlay.c b/libfdt/fdt_overlay.c
index bb41404..56cb70e 100644
--- a/libfdt/fdt_overlay.c
+++ b/libfdt/fdt_overlay.c
@@ -359,6 +359,9 @@ static int overlay_fixup_one_phandle(void *fdt, void *fdto,
 	int symbol_off, fixup_off;
 	int prop_len;
 
+	if (symbols_off < 0)
+		return symbols_off;
+
 	symbol_path = fdt_getprop(fdt, symbols_off, label,
 				  &prop_len);
 	if (!symbol_path)
@@ -492,7 +495,9 @@ static int overlay_fixup_phandles(void *fdt, void *fdto)
 
 	/* We can have overlays without any fixups */
 	fixups_off = fdt_path_offset(fdto, "/__fixups__");
-	if ((fixups_off < 0 && (fixups_off != -FDT_ERR_NOTFOUND)))
+	if (fixups_off == -FDT_ERR_NOTFOUND)
+		return 0; /* nothing to do */
+	if (fixups_off < 0)
 		return fixups_off;
 
 	/* And base DTs without symbols */