By Benjamin Pimentel, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Netflix Inc. stock continued
soaring Thursday morning, bucking a tech sector sell-off, as the
video-streaming company's results won praise on Wall Street.
Netflix (NFLX) was up 16% at $388.23, the best performer on the
S&P 500(SPX), which was down 1% as the broader market
retreated. The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) shed 1%, while the
Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was off 1.5%.
Netflix on Wednesday posted results that blew past Wall Street
estimates as the company added 2.33 million U.S. subscribers in the
fourth quarter.
RBC Capital's Mark Mahaney reiterated a buy rating on Netflix
and raised his price target to $500.
"A variety of factors were at play: strong execution, especially
in international markets, rising customer satisfaction, a larger
installed base of connected devices, the lack, so far, of a
compelling alternative in most markets, and the impact of original
series," he told clients in a note.
J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth also boosted his price target to
$500 with a buy rating, telling clients in a note, "We continue to
believe Netflix remains on track to significantly disrupt the
linear TV market through content differentiation, a compelling
consumer proposition, and strong subscriber growth."
Shares of eBay Inc. (EBAY) also were up about 0.4% a day after
the e-commerce site reported mostly in-line results, but stunned
Wall Street with the disclosure that billionaire investor Carl
Icahn is pushing to spin off PayPal as a separate company.
But the upward movement from Netflix and eBay was not enough to
lift the tech sector into positive territory. The sector was
weighed down by losses in shares of Intel Corp.(INTC), Facebook
Inc. (FB) and Twitter Inc.(TWTR)
Shares of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) shed 2%, while IBM Corp. (IBM)
edged higher by a fraction. IBM announced that it is selling its
low-end server business to Lenovo, a move that some analysts see as
a negative for H-P, as it could lead to more price competition in
that market.
Also in the red were shares of Nokia Corp.(NOK) Shares were down
9% after the company reported a drop in sales in its handset
business, which it is about to turn over to Microsoft Corp.
Microsoft (MSFT) was down 0.5% ahead of its quarterly report due
after the closing bell.
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