Tuesday's Tech Winners & Losers

Updated from 2:58 p.m. EST with new stock prices

Tech stocks were treading water Tuesday, as big movers roamed in both the black and the red.

DivX(DIVX Quote) shares also were rallying 32.6% after the media application software provider beat third-quarter estimates and named Kevin Hell its CEO. Excluding items, DivX posted a profit of 17 cents a share, vs. analysts' expectation of 12 cents a share. The stock was adding $3.91 to $15.89.

But Cognizant Technology Solutions(CTSH Quote) shares were plummeting 19.2% after guiding below Wall Street's fourth-quarter expectations. For the fourth quarter, Cognizant sees revenue in the range of $590 million to $595 million, below the $598 million forecast by analysts polled by Thomson Financial. The company's expected profit of 34 cents a share, excluding items, matches the Street's view. While third-quarter results beat expectations, shares fell $7.61 to $32.00.

Shares of Sun Microsystems(JAVA Quote) were falling 9.6%, after the computer network infrastructure provider missed Wall Street's fiscal first-quarter revenue expectations. The company posted revenue of $3.22 billion, vs. the $3.27 billion forecast by analysts polled by Thomson Financial. Despite swinging to a profit in the quarter, Sun shares were losing 55 cents to $5.16.

Yahoo!(YHOO Quote) shares were slipping 4.6% Tuesday on mixed news related to the company's dealings in China. The Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba.com, a subsidiary of Yahoo! investment Alibaba Group, soared in its first day of trading in Hon Kong. But Yahoo! founder and CEO Jerry Yang and General Counsel Michael Callahan were being grilled by a congressional committee over the company's decision to turn over information to the Chinese government last year that led to the jailing of a Chinese journalist. Yahoo! shares lost $1.43 to $29.93.

Despite drops by components Sun, Cognizant and Yahoo!, the Nasdaq 100 was up 23.49 points to 2,223.97.

Shares of Novatel Wireless(NVTL Quote) also sank 17.8%, after a JPMorgan analyst issued a bearish outlook for the wireless broadband access card maker -- even though the company beat analysts' third-quarter expectations and guided above forecasts for the fourth quarter.

JPMorgan analyst Paul Coster said Novatel's 2008 sales should slide, as the market for its products becomes saturated, and maintained an underperform rating, according to the Associated Press. This came a day after the company reported it had swung to a third-quarter non-GAAP profit of 31 cents a share on revenue of $104.6 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had expected third-quarter earnings of 26 cents a share on revenue of $113.7 million.

Novatel sees a fourth-quarter profit of 34 cents a share on revenue of $120 million. Analysts see fourth-quarter earnings of 25 cents on revenue of $112.5 million. Novatel shares were sliding $4.70 to $21.72.

On the positive side, Nortel(NT Quote) shares added 17.8% after the telecommunications equipment maker swung to a third-quarter profit. The company posted a net profit of $27 million, or 5 cents a share, vs. a loss of $63 million, or 14 cents a share a year ago.

While Nortel expects fourth-quarter sales relatively flat vs. a year-ago, it sees slight improvement in its gross margin and a 10% increase to its operating margin -- a five percentage point swing from the third quarter. Shares were adding $2.90 to $19.18.

Shares of First Solar(FSLR Quote) also was adding 14.1%, after the solar power company said it agreed to module supply deals worth about $1 billion through 2012. Shares were adding $20.90 to $169.00.