Thursday's Tech Winners & Losers

Bullish analyst reports boosted a number of tech stocks Thursday, helping buoy the sector.

Goldman Sachs upped its price estimate for Apple(AAPL Quote) to $190 from $165 after seeing "across the board" strength in Macs, which should drive fourth-quarter revenue and earnings, according to Barron's. The computer and iPod maker's shares were rising $3.32, or 2%, to $170.11.

VMware(VMW Quote) was gaining 4.5%, after BMO Capital initiated coverage of the virtualization software stock with a market perform rating. Shares were gaining $4.79 to $111.83.

Not all analyst actions were bullish. ThinkEquity lowered its ratings on a host of chip names, including Nvidia (NVDA Quote) and Fairchild Semiconductor(FCS Quote). Nvidia was off 54 cents, or 1.5%, to $36.37, while Fairchild was sinking 25 cents, or 1.4%, to $17.20.

Apple and Nvidia are components of the Nasdaq 100, which was up 14.28 points to 2191.26.

JA Solar Holdings(JASO Quote) was jumping 10.6%, after Collins Stewart initiated coverage of the Chinese solar cell maker with a buy rating. Shares were climbing $4.56 to $47.49.

Online gaming developer GigaMedia(GIGM Quote) also was rising, after Bear Stearns initiated coverage of the stock with an outperform rating. Shares were climbing $2.60, or 14.5%, to $20.50.

Virgin Mobil USA(VM Quote) soared after its initial public offering, before trading at a 4.8% gain more recently. The pay-as-you-go cell phone joint venture between Sprint Nextel(S Quote) and Virgin Group priced the offering of 27.5 million shares at $15 a share. The company offered underwriters Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns the right to buy up to 4.1 million shares. The stock was up 72 cents to $15.72.

Indian IT software maker Infosys Technologies(INFY Quote), however, was sinking 6.1%, despite beating Wall Street's expectations for the third quarter and guiding higher for the fourth and full-year. The company reported earnings of 48 cents per American Depository Share on revenue of $1.02 billion, vs. 36 cents a share on revenue of $746 million in the year-ago period. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected earnings of 46 cents a share on revenue of $992 million.

For the fourth quarter, the company expects revenue of between $1.07 billion and $1.08 billion and earnings of 51 cents per ADS. For the full year, it sees revenue of $4.16 billion and $4.17 billion and earnings of between $1.98 and $199 per ADS. For the fourth quarter, analysts saw earnings of 49 cents per ADS on revenue of $1.06 billion. For the full year, the Street predicted earnings of $1.94 per ADS on revenue of $4.11 billion.

Infosys shares were losing $3.39 to $51.90.