Thursday's Tech Winners & Losers
Updated from 1:25 p.m. EDT
Qualcomm
(QCOM) - Get Report
helped lead tech stocks higher Thursday, after a federal judge issued a favorable ruling in a long-running patent dispute.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
lifted a ban on imports of mobile phones using Qualcomm chips. Earlier this year, the U.S. International Trade Commission ordered the ban after ruling that Qualcomm had infringed on
Broadcom
(BRCM)
patents. Qualcomm shares rose $1.30, or 3.4%, to close at $39.17.
Research In Motion
(RIMM)
added 0.3% after a Canaccord Adams analyst boosted the Blackberry maker's price target, according to the
Associated Press
. Shares closed up 29 cents to $85.74.
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
also edged fractionally higher, after
boosting its dividend by a penny to 11 cents. Shares closed up 23 cents to $29.16.
Qualcomm, Research In Motion and Microsoft are components of the Nasdaq 100, which gained 9.67 points to 1998.63.
SiRF Technology
(SIRF)
, which makes chips and software to enable global positioning systems, gained 7.8% after an Oppenheimer analyst suggested the company can benefit in the near future from increased sales of
Motorola
(MOT)
phones, according to
StreetInsider.com
. SiRF shares closed up $1.43 to $19.68.
Among tech losers, memory chipmaker
SanDisk
(SNDK)
continued a nearly uninterrupted slide that began late Tuesday, losing 3.4% despite no major news. Shares closed down $1.76 to $49.99.
The day's biggest slide, however, belonged to high-definition TV maker
Syntax-Brillian
(BRLC)
, which plummeted 34.6% after being downgraded by two firms following
disappointing earnings Wednesday evening. Collins Stewart lowered its rating for the stock to market perform from buy, while Canaccord Adams dropped it to hold from buy.
The company missed analyst estimates for its fiscal fourth quarter by a penny, with earnings of 11 cents a share. It also guided lower for the first quarter of fiscal 2008 and separately announced that CFO Wayne Pratt will resign later this month. Shares shed $2.12 to close at $4.01.