Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has been on fire in 2012 and has hit new high after new high.  If you just benchmark the $500 price, Apple shares are up 23.4% so far in 2012. What is amazing is that there are some surprises in technology stocks in the S&P 500 Index which have managed to outperform Apple so far year-to-date.

As it turns out the stocks of CA Inc. (NYSE: CA), Teradata Corporation (NYSE: TDC), Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: A), and Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM) have all outperformed Apple so far in 2012.  Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) is even a runner-up as its gain is only 1% less than Apple’s great 2012 run.

CA Inc. (NYSE: CA) closed out 2011 at $20.03 and at $26.79 the stock is the best of the technology sector stocks in the S&P 500 with gains of 33% year-to-date after adjusting for a dividend payment.  Speaking of which, that dividend yield is close to 3.7%.  The mean price target is $27.50 from analysts, so that implies only about 3% more upside as it stands today.

Teradata Corporation (NYSE: TDC) closed out 2011 at $48.51 and after earnings the stock is now up to $61.75 for a year-to-date gain of just over 27%. Enterprise data storage remains in demand.  Thomson Reuters has a price target of $67.42 and that implies just under 10% upside left in the stock.

Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) closed out 2011 at $101.46, and shares are up 29.6% year-to-date with the stock at $131.50.  With SaaS, CRM, and the cloud, the valuation here remains an astronomical 94-times next year’s forward earnings estimates.  The consensus price target of $147.70 leaves an implied upside of almost 13%.

Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: A) is diversified enough in a number of sectors that it might not feel like a true technology company even though it is in the S&P 500 Technology screens.  After closing 2011 out at $34.93, its shares are up 25.5% at $43.85.  The consensus analyst mean target of $49.79 leaves an implied upside of 13.4% over the next year.  That would not even be a 52-week for the stock.

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM) has so far lived up to when Jim Cramer touted it as a tech smartphone value stock.  Even with a drop so far on Monday of almost -1.5% it is trading at $36.50 for a year-to-date gain of 24.3% from the $29.36 closing price of 2011.  The consensus analyst mean target of $41.77 leaves an implied upside remaining of 14.4%.

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There is a surprise runner-up status by Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL).  With a 0.8% gain so far on Monday to $17.90, Dell is up 22.35% year-to-date from the $14.63 close of 2011.  Boy, Dell?  Really?  Dell has barely 1% of upside left  before running into the mean consensus analyst target of $18.17.

As far as how all of this compares to Apple, a $500 Apple share price leaves an implied 13.7% upside to the consensus analyst price target of $568.49 on the stock even if some analysts are actually expecting far more upside.

Is it ironic that S&P downgraded the technology sector today calling the group overextended on a historic basis?  Keep in mind that we still have over ten months until the end of the year.

JON C. OGG

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