By the end of last year, 53.5% of tech stocks in the S&P 500 paid a divided compared with 20% in 2002. Some 38 US technology companies have raised their dividend in 2012, with a further three introducing or reinstating theirs.

The technology sector provides a rich hunting ground for the income investors. Many companies in the sector have very strong balance sheets, ample free cash flow and still very low payout ratios. Given that the demand for income in the US remains strong, it is not surprising to see that many technology companies are either initiating a dividend or significantly boosting their payouts. We fully expect this trend to continue. Many payout ratios remain in the low 30s and could be in the mid-40s.’

 

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) Social networking site Facebook went down in some of EU countries including Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Norway and Portugal on Thursday, according to reports that came in via Twitter.

 

There is a “likely service disruption” on Facebook (FB), according to the website Down Right Now which collects its information by using a few different techniques like searching for an official site announcement, Twitter reports or direct reports to the site.

 

A Twitter account associated with the hacking group Anonymous claimed responsibility for the attacks on Facebook in Europe, according to CBS News.

 

FB has confirmed in the meanwhile, a separate incident of hacking activity, in which a researcher named Suriya Prakash did indeed get access to mobile numbers that users had posted on their profiles.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB)’s privacy settings which are confusing and not easily understood by a lot of users, were an easy target for hackers, especially in cases where users hadn’t set the correct privacy settings, hacker claimed on Twitter and on his blog.

 

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s price increased in the last trading session with a previous 52-week high of $45.00. The stock was trading on below-average volume. The stock traded at a volume of 21.80 million shares at a price gain of 0.56%. The share price is now down -35.71% for the past three months. Latest closing price was -3.53% below its 50-day moving average and -21.38% below its 200-day moving average.

 

So far, the share price of Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL) fell -35.18% in this year and stock’s price history revealed that beta was maintained at 0.76 and the percentage change in the price over the last fifty two weeks remained as -40.72%. The price range in those 52 weeks had a highest hit of $16.86 on Feb 03, 2012 while lowest level during that period was $8.70 on Oct 11, 2012.

 

While trading at volume higher than average, Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) climbed 3.40% yesterday. Its previous 52-week high was $15.91 and trading at a volume of 21.26 million. Shares have fell -79.49% over the trailing 6 months. The stock is currently trading -16.74% below its SMA 50 and -67.97% below its SMA 200.

 

Shares of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) traded up 0.57% during trading yesterday, hitting $16.02. The stock has a 52 week low of $14.35 and a 52 week high of $16.79. The company has a market cap of $18.86 billion and a P/E ratio of 17.89. The P/S ratio is 3.79 and P/B ratio 1.52. The beta value is 0.86. YHOO’s RSI amounts to 56.18.