TECH STOCKS: Hewlett-Packard Rises To Lead Tech Rally
02/22/2013| 04:50pm US/Eastern
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By Benjamin Pimentel, MarketWatch
Technology stocks were mostly higher Friday as shares of Hewlett-Packard Co. rose sharply on better-than-anticipated quarterly results.
H-P (>> Hewlett-Packard Company) rose 12.3% to close at $19.20 a day after beating Wall Street's expectations although analysts pointed to longer-term challenges for the technology powerhouse.
"H-P posted a surprising beat and raise quarter, albeit off a low bar with consensus looking for sizable year-over-year revenue and earnings-per-share declines," Sterne Agee's Shaw Wu said in a note. "Nonetheless we view it as progress made. The bad news is that all business segments declined and will likely continue to see pressure through fiscal year 2013."
H-P quickly emerged as the best performer on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI), which rose 120 points. The stock also was the top gainer on the S&P 500 (SPX), which was up a fraction.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) was up 30 points, or 1%, to close at 3,162. But the benchmark ended the week with a 1% loss.
The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) was up 1.3%, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) rose 2.1%.
The chip sector got a lift from shares of Texas Instruments Inc. (>> Texas Instruments Incorporated), which were up 5.2%, closing at $34.18. Late Thursday, the Dallas-based chip maker announced that it has hiked its quarterly dividend by 33%.
Another semiconductor company, Marvell Technology Group (>> Marvell Technology Group Ltd.), saw its stock rise 4.4% to close at $9.89 a day after posting upbeat results.
On the downside, shares of Netflix Inc. (>> Netflix, Inc.) were down 4% to close at $179.86, one of the top decliners on the S&P 500.
Shares of BlackBerry (RIMM), formerly known as Research In Motion, were also down 5% to close at $13.18. MKM Partners downgraded the stock to a sell from neutral on challenges posed by the company's BlackBerry 10 operating system.
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