Thursday's Tech Winners & Losers
Tech stocks traded higher Thursday with semiconductor stocks leading the way as many big names in the sector bagged upgrades from an analyst at Bank of America.
Shares of
Yahoo!
(YHOO)
gathered steam following a report in the
Wall Street Journal
that it
to merging its online operations with
Time Warner's
(TWX)
AOL in a bid to rebuff
Microsoft's
(MSFT) - Get Microsoft Corporation Report
unsolicited offer for the company.
Microsoft, which has made a $31-a-share offer for Yahoo!, is not sitting idle. It is reportedly talking to
TheStreet Recommends
News Corp.
(NWS) - Get News Corporation Report
to partner on its Yahoo! bid.
Yahoo!'s stock rose 85 cents, or 3.1%, to $28.62. Microsoft was up 34 cents, or $1.2%, to $29.23.
LSI
(LSI) - Get Life Storage Inc. Report
added 37 cents, or 6.7%, to $5.70 after Sumit Dhanda, an analyst at Bank of America upgraded the stock to neutral from sell.
Inventory buildup and lack of top line growth amid loss of market share has now been baked into the analyst's operating margins forecast for LSI and is reflected better in the stock's price at its current valuation, he said.
National Semiconductor
(NSM)
also gained $1.33, or 6.8%, to $20.77 following an upgrade to neutral from sell by Dhanda, the BofA analyst.
Intel
(INTC) - Get Intel Corporation Report
added 91 cents, or 4.3%, to $22.33 after it was upgraded to buy from neutral by Dhanda.
Analog Devices
(ADI) - Get Analog Devices Inc. Report
rose $1.62, or 5.4%, to $31.63 after an upgrade to buy from neutral by Dhanda.
Shares of
Texas Instruments
(TXN) - Get Texas Instruments Incorporated Report
stayed strong despite news that two of Europe's largest chip companies,
ST Micro
(STM) - Get STMicroelectronics N.V. Report
and
NXP
will
combine their wireless chip business
that could put the new combined entity in competition with TI. TI shares were up 89 cents, or 3%, to $30.41
