Winners & Losers

Return to Article

Thursday's Tech Winners & Losers

Priya Ganapati

Tech stocks moved higher Thursday as market indices remained positive despite Commerce Department data pointing to a slowdown in consumer spending in December.

TiVo(TIVO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) added $1.97, or 29%, to $8.77 after a U.S. appeals court ruled that Dish Network(DISH - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), formerly known as EchoStar Communications, infringed a TiVo patent and should pay TiVo $73 million in damages.

The decision from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas settles the long-standing dispute between Echostar and TiVo, which had filed the suit in 2004.

Shares of Dish Network were down 15 cents to $28.24.

IT security company Websense(WBSN - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) continued to gain following strong fourth-quarter results Tuesday. The stock was up $1.41, or 7.4%, to $20.50.

Websense beat analysts' expectations and guided higher for fiscal 2008. Revenue for the quarter rose to $86.2 million from $47.33 million a year ago while net income, excluding charges, was $12.8 million, or 28 cents a share, compared with $11.4 million in net income, or 25 cents a share, a year ago. Analysts were expecting sales of $78.14 million and EPS of 23 cents.

For fiscal 2008, Websense expects revenue to range between $325 million and $335 million and earnings, excluding charges, of $1.15 to $1.25 a share. Analysts are expecting revenue of $309.50 and earnings of $1.15 a share.

Amazon.com(AMZN - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) rose $3.49, or 4.7%, to $77.70, a day after the company said it doubled its fourth-quarter profit and projected revenues for 2008 that were above analysts' estimates.

For the year, the company said it expects revenue between $18.75 billion and $19.75 billion. The Street's consensus estimate was $18.25 billion.

The company also said Thursday it will acquire digital audio content company Audible(ADBL - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) for $300 million. Shares of Audible rose $2.09, or 22.4%, to $11.42.

Shares of Cadence Systems(CDNS - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) fell 33.1% after the company missed fourth-quarter revenue expectations and guided lower for 2008.

Cadence reported revenue of $457.9 million, up 6% from revenue of $431 million in the same quarter of the prior year but lower than analysts' expectations for revenue of $470.3 million.

For 2008, the company guided revenue in the range of $1.49 billion to $1.54 billion, and EPS, excluding items, of $1.11 to $1.19. Analysts were looking for $1.74 billion and EPS of $1.53.

The stock was also downgraded to underweight from neutral by an analyst at JP Morgan.

Adobe Systems(ADBE - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) fell $1.01, or 2.8%, to $34.93 after a Wall Street firm cut its rating on the stock.

An analyst at Jeffries downgraded the stock to underperform from buy, saying that business slowed more than expected in January and a further slowdown in consumer demand could affect the company's results.