Stocks to Watch (CPHD,RIMM,MCD,HPQ,TIBX,TRA)

Cepheid (NASDAQ: CPHD)  rose over 6% to $14.25 in after hours trading The maker of products to detect disease-causing agents in food and water said it won approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to sell a test for genetic risk of thrombosis.

Research In Motion Limited (USA) (NASDAQ: RIMM)  fell 11.87% to $73.20 after its second fiscal quarter declined to $475.6 million, or 83 cents per share, from $495.5 million, or 86 cents a share, for the same period last year. Results for the recent period include a charge of $112.8 million related to the settlement of a patent dispute with Visto Corp. Excluding the charge, RIM said it would have earned $588.4 million, or $1.03 per share, for the recent period. Revenue jumped 37% to $3.53 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $1 per share on revenue of $3.62 billion, according to consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters.

McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD) rallied $0.28 or 0.50% to $56.40 after the company increased its quarterly dividend by 10% to 55 cents a share. It will be paid Dec. 15 to shareholders of record as of Dec. 1. The fast-food chain has raised its dividend every year since paying its first dividend in 1976. The new quarterly dividend will amount to $2.20 a share on an annual basis, or four times the amount paid in 2004.

Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) fell 1% to $46.40 after The world’s biggest personal- computer maker forecast sales for 2010 that may miss some analysts’ estimates, indicating that the technology market is still taking time to recover.

Tibco Software Inc. (NASDAQ: TIBX) rose 8.43% to $9.13 after  it said its fiscal third-quarter profit rose to $14.9 million, or 9 cents a share, from $11.1 million, or 6 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time items, the company said it would have reported earnings of 13 cents a share for the latest quarter. Revenue fell to $150.3 million from $162.3 million last year. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research estimated a quarterly profit of 10 cents a share on revenue of $144.6 million.

Terra Industries Inc. (NYSE: TRA) rose 4.14% to $36.49 after The fertilizer producer said it plans to return about $750 million in cash to shareholders through a special cash dividend of $7.50 a share.