Thursday's Tech Winners & Losers

Updated from 2:14 p.m. EST with new stock prices

Tech stocks traded higher Thursday on strong earnings reports from many of the sector's big names.

Shares of Symantec(SYMC Quote - Cramer on SYMC - Stock Picks) jumped $1.67, or 10.9%, to $16.93 after the company sailed past analysts' expectations for the last quarter and raised its guidance for the fiscal year on the basis of its strong performance in overseas markets and strength in its services division.

Net income for the quarter rose 13% to $132 million. Excluding charges, profit increased to $292 million, or 33 cents a share, compared with $251 million, or 26 cents a share, for the year-ago quarter. Revenue grew 15% to $1.53 billion, compared with $1.33 billion a year ago.

McAfee(MFE Quote - Cramer on MFE - Stock Picks) rose $3.26, or 10.9%, to $33.30 after the stock was upgraded by Citigroup and Bear Stearns.

Citigroup raised its rating on the stock to buy from hold, while Bear Stearns upgraded it to outperform from peer perform. A Citigroup analyst said the company's new management and a strong product portfolio led to the upgrade.

Qualcomm(QCOM Quote - Cramer on QCOM - Stock Picks) gained $3.78, or 10.3%, to $40.41, a day after it reported that its first-quarter profit had jumped 18%. Qualcomm posted an adjusted income of $872 million, or 52 cents a share, up 21% from a year ago.

Analysts were looking for pro-forma profit of around 53 cents a share. Sales totaled $2.44 billion in the quarter, about 20% higher than the year before, and beat expectations of $2.41 billion.

Take-Two(TTWO Quote - Cramer on TTWO - Stock Picks) rose 10.7% after the company announced the release date for Grand Theft Auto IV, the new title from its blockbuster Grand Theft Auto franchise. The game will be in stores worldwide on April 29 and will be available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles. Shares of Take-Two were up $1.54 to $16.00.

Nokia(NOK Quote - Cramer on NOK - Stock Picks) added $3.99, or 12.3%, to $36.42 after it sailed past analysts' expectations for the fourth quarter and said it has added market share and increased its margins.

Nokia reported earnings of 1.84 billion euros ($2.69 billion), or 47 euro cents (69 cents) a share. That is a 44% increase from a year ago and ahead of analysts' expectations of earnings of 44 euro cents (64 cents) a share.

eBay(EBAY Quote - Cramer on EBAY - Stock Picks) fell 6.1%, a day after the company warned of weak results in 2008 and said its long-time CEO Meg Whitman will step down.

eBay earned $531 million in the fourth quarter, or 39 cents a share. Revenue was $2.18 billion, a $461 million increase over the same period last year. Adjusted for certain items, net income was $611 million, or 45 cents share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call had forecast earnings per share of 41 cents on revenue of $2.14 billion.

The stock was downgraded by Citigroup to hold from buy.

Shares of eBay were off $1.76 to $27.18.

Video-games publisher THQ>(THQI Quote - Cramer on THQI - Stock Picks) fell 22.3% after the company cut its profit outlook for the third and fourth quarters on cancellation of several games from the company's stable and took charges related to the poor performance of some of its titles last year.

THQ also reorganized its games portfolio by cancelling games for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 consoles, shuttering two titles that had poor sales last year,and closing one of its game development studios.

The stock was also downgraded by two Wall Street firms, Broadpoint Capital and Kaufman Bros. Shares of THQ declined $5.60 to $19.50.

LSI(LSI Quote - Cramer on LSI - Stock Picks) jumped 21% after the company reported fourth-quarter results ahead of expectations.

However, the company said it took a big write-off, sending the its results into the red. In the fourth quarter, LSI recorded a net loss of $2 billion, or $2.88 a share, vs. net income of $59 million, or 14 cents a share, at this time last year. The company's adjusted EPS, excluding the charges, came in at 13 cents. The average analyst expectation called for 7 cents in adjusted EPS. Shares of LSI were up 84 cents to $4.85.