By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Gains from LinkedIn Corp. and
Dell Inc. stood out among tech stocks Friday as the overall sector
showed signs of getting into positive territory after bogging down
earlier on the latest payroll and jobs data.
LinkedIn (LNKD) climbed almost 10%, to $233.47 after the online
professional-networking company reported better-than-expected
second quarter results late Thursday. LinkedIn said its business
performance was led by gains in new memberships.
Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Youssef Squali raised his rating on
LinkedIn to buy, and lifted his price target on the company's stock
to $250 a share from $170.
In a research note, Squali said that while LinkedIn's shares had
risen 90% since the first of the year before Thursday's report, he
supported raising his views on LinkedIn because it is one of the
"rare cases where a company keeps outperforming expectations and
where the long-term outlook keeps getting better with every passing
quarter."
Dell (DELL) climbed 5% to $13.62 a share after the company
agreed to a new buyout offer from Chief Executive Michael Dell and
Silver Lake. Under terms of the new deal, Michael Dell and Silver
Lake will pay $13.75 a share for Dell, pay a special dividend of 13
cents a share by the time the deal closes, and guarantee the
company's third-quarter dividend payment of 8 cents a share.
A special shareholder meeting on Michael Dell's offer to take
Dell private that had been scheduled for Friday has been postponed
until Sept. 12.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) rose by $1.71 a share to $458.39. On Friday,
the U.S. Justice Department and the attorneys general of 33 states
sought a court approval for a proposal that would require Apple to
terminate its e-book deals with the five major book publishers.
Yelp Inc. (YELP) scored more gains in the wake of its strong
quarterly results and 23% advance on Thursday. Yelp shares rose
almost 13% Friday, to $58.
Other gains came from Pandora Media Inc. (P), Facebook Inc.
(FB), Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and eBay Inc. (EBAY).
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) trimmed its losses, but was
still down by 5 points at 3,670. The latest data from the Labor
Department weighed on the market as the unemployment rate dropped
to a four-year-low in July, but fewer jobs were created in the
month than had been expected.
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