Vendors get a vote of confidence from Wall Street

Analysts and investors showed confidence in key IT vendors like Accenture and Nokia this week, even as the Nasdaq, home to a broad swath of tech companies, fell into negative territory for the year as macroeconomic news weighed on markets.

Good news for Accenture may also be good news for tech in general. Accenture Wednesday raised hopes for the year when it reported a strong quarter, ending Feb. 28. Accenture posted $0.47 earnings per share, excluding one-time items, while analysts had been expecting $0.42, according to Thomson Financial. The company had $4.75 billion in revenue, up 16 percent from one year earlier.

The company forecast net revenue growth for the next year to be in the range of 9 percent to 12 percent — well above the 2007 global IT sector growth rate, expected to be about 6.5 percent. Brokerage Stifel Nicolaus & Co. and research company Standard & Poor’s both upgraded Accenture to “buy” from “hold.”

Strong forecasts from service companies are seen as a harbinger of good things to come because businesses tend to buy services when they have money to buy IT. Though lower-end services are expected to experience weakening demand in the U.S. as these jobs get outsourced, the services sector globally appears to be strong, according to Jim Lanzalotto, vice president of Yoh Services in Philadelphia, a personnel and outsourcing firm, in a recent interview. One of Accenture’s strengths is in its global expansion program, which calls for new facilities in Eastern Europe and Asia, including India.

Another big rating change this week was Goldman Sachs Group’s Monday upgrade for Dell, which it now rates as “buy,” up from “neutral.” Goldman cited cost-cutting measures, saying that the PC maker is on track to get back to favorable profit margins over the next 12 to 18 months. Dell shares jumped, though they started to fall again toward the end of the week along with the rest of the market. The upgrade came before the company’s Thursday revelation that it will once again postpone filing its official financial report due to an ongoing inquiry into accounting practices. The investigation is unlikely to affect cost measures, however.

Nokia provided another bright spot this week as an announcement about its forthcoming music-playing camera was credited for a jump in its share price. On Thursday, company shares closed at $22.89, up by $0.47, after the company unveiled its 5700 XpressMusic, which includes a music player as well as a digital camera. It expects the device to be available in the second quarter, priced at $466.

There was some good news on the macroeconomic front as well. On Thursday the U.S. Department of Commerce said fourth-quarter gross domestic production rose 2.5 percent, better than the 2.2 percent than had been expected. But a rise in oil prices and Wednesday remarks from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who, in testimony to Congress expressed fears about inflation and dimmed hopes for interest rate cuts, overshadowed the markets.

High energy prices reduce businesses’ ability to make capital expenditures (on things including IT), while high interest rates can dampen mergers and acquisitions activity, which during the past year has been seen as a sign of a healthy, creative technology sector.

Midweek, the Nasdaq started to dip below the year’s opening level of 2423.16. Despite the macroeconomic concerns, however, the news from the standout IT companies this week shows that IT investors are still cheering vendors that show creativty, solid global expansion plans, and rational cost controls.