Wednesday's Tech Winners & Losers

Updated from 11:37 a.m. EDT

Technology stocks moved lower Wednesday, after a couple of big tech names got smacked with analyst downgrades.

Shares of CheckFree(CKFR), an electronic commerce-services company, moved lower after JMP Securities downgraded the stock to market perform from strong buy. The firm also cut its price target on the stock to $42 from $48. JMP said it changed its rating because of growing concern that Bank of America(BAC), CheckFree's biggest client, is planning to move the payment warehouse portion of its online bill processing service in-house. Shares closed down $2.79, or 7.3%, to $35.35.

Salesforce.com(CRM), meanwhile, slid 4.1% after Cowen & Co. cut its rating on the stock to neutral. The firm also removed Salesforce.com from its focus list. Increased competition from the likes of Microsoft(MSFT) and Oracle(ORCL), coupled with a lack of near-term catalysts, is likely to keep a lid on the stock, the firm added. Shares closed down $1.86 to $43.84.

Elsewhere, IBM(IBM) moved lower even after announcing a $128 million contract with Pearson. The five-year agreement, which is an extension of a seven-year contract signed in 2002, calls for IBM to provide Pearson with information technology infrastructure services that will be deployed across 30 locations in 11 states. The new contract extends the companies' contractual relationship to 2014. Shares of IBM were recently trading down $1.30 to $95.16.