By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCSO (MarketWatch) -- The diverging paths of PC giants
Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. garnered much of the attention in
the sector Wednesday as investor and analyst sentiment over the
company's earnings reports played out.
Dell (DELL) climbed by 92 cents, or almost 6%, to $16.81 after
the company late Tuesday reported a profit of $945 million, or 49
cents a share, for its first fiscal quarter, up from $341 million,
or 17 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Sales edged up 1%
to $15 billion.
Excluding one-time items, Dell would have earned $1.05 billion,
or 55 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had
forecast Dell to earn 43 cents a share on revenue of $15.4
billion.
While Dell was ascending, H-P shares (HPQ) slid for a second
straight day, falling 61 cents, or 1.7%, to $36.30. At least six
analysts who cover H-P have downgraded the stock since the company
gave a disappointing forecast early Tuesday.
Shares of Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) climbed $1.62, or 3.7%,
to $45.40.
Bernstein Research analyst Pierre Feragu raised his rating on
the BlackBerry maker to market perform from underperfrom on the
grounds that RIM's shares are down almost 40% since their high
point in February.
Other gains came from Apple Inc. (AAPL), Intel Corp. (INTC) and
Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN)
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose 8 points to 2,791, while
the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was up by 1.4%.