Just one day after hitting new lows, the major averages reversed course for the strongest day in a month.

The rally was touted as a response to Chairman Bernanke's testimony and the anticipation of the president's speech. But technical analysis has been telling us that the markets have been due for a rally.

I pointed out in yesterday's Daily Market Outlook, that the market was so extremely oversold that a rally was overdue, despite new lows in the Dow, which confirmed that the bear market was still with us.

This post is part of a series featuring bargain stocks that are worth a look now. See more Cheap Stocks.

Tech stocks are taking a beating lately, as more and more companies scale back on their IT spending. While it may be foolhardy to bet on any significant short-term rallies for this struggling group, there's probably no better time than the present to dive into a long-term play. With BMC Software (NYSE: BMC) approaching key support levels, this is one stock worth looking into.

While many major technology concerns have provided weak or slashed forecasts for the coming quarters (Cisco, anyone?), BMC recently raised its fiscal 2008 earnings guidance. The company now expects fiscal-year profits of $2.15 to $2.25 per share, up from its previous outlook of $2.10 to $2.20 per share. BMC also exceeded second-quarter profit expectations in its October 30 report -- overall, this is one tech name that's no slouch in the earnings department.

With BMC holding up strong in a tough environment, it's no wonder that Raymond James analyst Michael Turits recently upgraded the shares from Outperform to Strong Buy. "We expect ... BMC to continue to benefit from the relative resilience of the mainframe market," Turits wrote in a note to clients, adding that "customers at the [CA World] conference indicated no slowing in mainframe capacity growth planning."

BMC Software (NYSE: BMC) provides software used by large enterprises to manage computer systems and company services. Among the functions addressed are business process scheduling and integration, application and database performance, and recovery and storage management. Customers include Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM).

The company surprised investors last week, when it reported fiscal Q4 EPS of 63 cents and revenues of $466.9 million. Analysts had been looking for 51 cents and $460.3 million. In discussing the successful quarter, the CEO noted client interest in the unified architecture of the firm's suite. Management also guided FY09 EPS to $2.10-$2.20, versus consensus of $2.09. Oppenheimer and Lehman Brothers subsequently reiterated "buy" recommendations on the issue and boosted their price targets to $43.

In the summer of last year, BladeLogic (NASDAQ: BLOG) launched its IPO, which skyrocketed nearly 50%. It helped that one of its main rivals, Opsware, get a $1.65 billion buyout offer from Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ).

Well, BladeLogic has now agreed to sell out, although at a lower valuation: $800 million. The buyer is tech veteran, BMC Software (NYSE: BMC).

BladeLogic is focused on helping to deal with the mind-numbing complexities of data centers, helping with things like compliance, downtime, speed and so on. Keep in mind that there's about $140 billion spent on data centers per year.

At the same time, over the past few years, BMC has done a good job restructuring its company. Now it's in a position to ramp growth – and BladeLogic will be a nice boost. In fiscal Q1, the company's revenues spiked 68% to $21.4 million.

Although, Wall Street is skeptical. In today's trading, BMC's stock is down 7% to $31.31.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.