Thursday's Late Winners & Losers

A number of tech stocks were mired in the red after the close Thursday, but emerging as a winner was Alcoa (AA).

The Pittsburgh aluminum maker announced it will sell its packaging and consumer business, having "received strong indications from strategic buyers." The company also said it is closing in on a deal to sell its automotive castings business. The transactions should close by early 2008 and year-end, respectively.

The company also set plans to "significantly restructure" its electrical and electronic solutions business in the Americas and Europe. For all of the above, it will incur third-quarter charges totaling around $845 million. Shares traded up 0.9% to $38 in recent after-hours action.

On the flip side, Research In Motion (RIMM) traded choppily despite in-line fiscal-second-quarter financials. The BlackBerry maker said earnings doubled from last year to 50 cents a share, or $287.7 million, and revenue more than doubled to $1.37 billion.

Still, investors were disappointed with the relatively ho-hum results, and shares of the Canadian company were recently losing 2.1% to $98.42.

One of the biggest price decliners after-hours was SupportSoft (SPRT), which makes software for tech-problem resolution.

Shares fell 17.7% to $5.21 after the Redwood City, Calif. company lowered its 2007 bottom-line outlook to a non-GAAP loss of between 35 cents and 37 cents a share. That compares with the prior loss range of between 31 cents and 35 cents a share, and would come in at least a penny under the mean Street target.

SupportSoft also narrowed its expected third-quarter EPS loss, now expecting a loss of between 8 cents and 10 cents a share, instead of between 9 cents and 11 cents a share. The new range leans to the low end of consensus.

Fellow tech stock, Lawson Software (LWSN) also issued soft guidance. The St. Paul, Minn. maker of business-application software projected a non-GAAP profit of 6 cents to 8 cents a share in the fiscal second quarter, which dips under the consensus range.

Lawson also reported 7-cent per-share income to beat first-quarter estimates, but shares were still off 65 cents, or 5.9%, to $9.70.