Tech Stocks: Apple, Micron head up mild tech gains

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) � Tech stocks ended up putting in a mixed performance Wednesday, with Apple Inc., Micron Technology Inc. and Dell Inc. among the sector�s few advancers.

Apple AAPL �shares flexed their muscles, rising $21.48, or almost 4%, to $589.58. Before the market opened, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty boosted her price target on Apple�s stock to $720 a share from $515, and Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley raised his to $710 from $665.

/quotes/zigman/68270/quotes/nls/aapl AAPL 648.11, +11.77, +1.85%

The impetus for the moves is anticipated high demand for the next version of the iPad, which Apple reiterated would go on sale online and at its retail stores on March 16. Earlier this week, Apple said it had sold out of new iPads it had set aside for pre-orders.

Micron MU �shares pulled back from their high point, but still closed with a gain of 9 cents at $8.58. Bernstein Research analyst Mark Newman raised his rating on the memory-chip maker to outperform from market perform. Newman based his rating on factors such as Micron�s ability to potentially benefit from consolidation in the DRAM chip market. Micron is scheduled to report its quarterly results on March 22. Read more about Micron in the Ratings Game.

Dell Inc. DELL �shares rose by 19 cents to $17.42 a day after the company said it would acquire privately held network-security technology company SonicWall Inc., in a deal reportedly worth $1.2 billion.

The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP managed to crawl back from some late losses to close with a gain of less than 1 point at 3,041. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index SOX �and the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index MSH �both closed in the red.

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Intel Corp. INTC �gave up gains and closed with a loss of 3 cents a share at $27.35. Alex Gauna of JMP Securities raised his target on the stock to $33 from $30, saying there are signs of strengthening demand for chips, especially in the notebook and server markets.

Losses also came from Oracle Corp. ORCL , Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ , Netflix Inc. NFLX , Yahoo Inc. YHOO �and EMC Corp. EMC �