TECH STOCKS: Apple Leads The Tech Sector Higher

By Rex Crum, MarketWatch Piper Jaffray raises price target as iPhone 6 supplies improve

NEW YORK (MarketWatch)--Tech stocks put in a strong performance Thursday, with Apple Inc. among the sector leaders gaining ground after Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster raised his price target on the iPhone maker.

Apple (AAPL) shares rose 1.4% to close at $116.31 after Munster lifted his price target on the company to $135 a share from $120. Munster cited improvements in Apple's ability to match supplies of the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus with consumer demand as the main reason why he raised his expectations for Apple's stock price.

Munster's new price target came one day after Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty raised her price target on Apple's stock to $126 a share from $115 on the likelihood of strong Apple Watch sales once the device comes out in 2015.

Among other leading tech stocks, gains came from Yahoo Inc. (YHOO), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Facebook Inc. (FB).

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) shares rose 1% to $48.70, even as analysts at Morgan Stanley said Thursday that investors might want to wait for the shares to fall further before investing in the software giant.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose 26 points to 4,701 and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) ended the day up by almost 1%.

While the broader tech sector advanced, there emerged some notable decliners.

GoPro Inc. (GPRO) fell more than 9% to close at $71.74 a share. Late Wednesday, the digital sport-camera maker said the company, as well as several insiders, would offer 10 million shares of GoPro stock to the public in a secondary offering at $75 a share.

Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) gave up 4.5% to close at $58.30 a share after the on-demand software company gave a disappointing fourth-quarter forecast on Wednesday. Salesforce said it expects to report a fourth-quarter profit, excluding one-time items, of 13 cents to 14 cents a share on revenue of about $1.44 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet estimate fourth-quarter earnings of 15 cents a share on revenue of $1.45 billion for the period ending in January.

Losses also came from Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), Twitter Inc. (TWTR) and Pandora Media Inc. (P).

RELATED: Uber is so over for many ride sharers(Uber is so over for many ride sharers http://www.marketwatch.com/storyno-meta-for-guid.)

RELATED: Will Apple's iPhone 6 ruin Christmas for other retailers?(Will Apple's iPhone 6 ruin Christmas for other retailers? http://www.marketwatch.com/storyno-meta-for-guid.)

RELATED: Yahoo to be default search engine on Firefox browser(Yahoo to be default search engine on Firefox browser http://www.marketwatch.com/storyno-meta-for-guid.)

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires