Boring stocks are basking in popularity. The utilities and consumer staples sectors within the S&P 500 index are 12% and 22% more expensive, respectively, than the broader index based on 2011 earnings forecasts.

Such firms tend to grow earnings only slowly, and so usually trade cheaply. But they also tend to hold up well in a recession -- an attribute investors are currently willing to pay up for.

For those investors who prefer to shop away from the herd, technology shares seem worth a look. The tech sector within the S&P 500 sells for about 13 times earnings, on par with the broader index. But tech is projected by Wall Street to produce 14% earnings growth next year, versus 10% for the index and much less for utilities and staples.

Below are a pair of tech firms that have received multiple opinion upgrades from analysts over the past four weeks. Whether analysts rate a particular stock a "buy" or a "hold" at a given time tends not to have much predictive power, studies show. ("Sell" ratings are rarer and, perhaps for that reason, more prescient.) But changes in opinions represent fresh information, and studies show they tend to be more closely linked with future returns.

Hewlett-Packard

• No. of upgrades, past four weeks (net of downgrades): 3
• Price-to-earnings ratio: 6

Computer giant Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has shed nearly half of its stock market value since mid-February. The company has lost two chief executives in two years, the first to an expense report scandal involving a relationship with a former employee, and the second following 11 months of lowered earnings expectations and waning investor confidence.

The new chief executive, former eBay (EBAY) boss Meg Whitman, has made two broad changes, reversing an earlier decision to sell the company's personal computer business and making its waning webOS operating system open-source (and free). Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu, who upgraded the stock to "buy" last month, calls both moves "smart" and Hewlett an "underappreciated turnaround story." Shares are less than half as expensive as the broad market relative to earnings forecasts.

Broadcom

• No. of upgrades, past four weeks (net of downgrades): 2
• Price-to-earnings ratio: 10

Broadcom (BRCM) makes chips that control touch screens, mobile phones, set-top boxes and more. Key customers include Apple (AAPL), Nokia (NOK) and Samsung. Its stock has lost more than one-third of its value this year. Worldwide economic growth has slowed, dragging down shares of chip makers in general, and competition for cell phone chips has increased. A pair of natural disasters -- a March earthquake in Japan and ongoing flooding in Thailand -- haven't helped. Both countries make components for set-top boxes and other electronics.

At a recent analyst meeting the company outlined plans to invest more in smartphone chips, worldwide demand for which should increase at a compounded yearly rate of 23% through 2015, according to management. It also stands to benefit in coming years from soaring demand for "cellular backhaul" products used to ease congested networks, analysts say. But near-term forecasts call for meager earnings growth, leaving investors unenthused. "We think many have given up on the stock," wrote Jefferies analyst Mark Lipacis in a Thursday research note. He sees Broadcom as "uniquely positioned" to benefit from broad, longer-term growth in communications.