By Emily Dattilo
Marvell Technology’s financial outlook was disappointing for investors, but Wall Street strategists are recommending patience.
When the semiconductor firm reported fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday, it said it expects revenue with a midpoint of $1.15 billion for the current quarter, lower than the $1.38 billion analysts had penciled in.
“While we are forecasting soft demand impacting consumer, carrier infrastructure, and enterprise networking in the near term, we expect revenue declines in these end markets to be behind us after the first quarter, and project a recovery in the second half of the fiscal year,” CEO Matt Murphy said.
Traders weren’t thrilled with the guidance, sending shares down 6% to $80.02 in premarket trading. Meanwhile, analysts channeled a more long-term and upbeat view.
Needham researchers led by N. Quinn Bolton raised their price target on shares to $95 from $65 and maintained a Buy rating in a Friday report.
“We recommend investors buy on weakness, taking advantage of the weaker non-Data Center businesses to gain exposure to an accelerating AI-levered portfolio,” they wrote.
Piper Sandler analysts Harsh Kumar and Robert Aguanno struck a similar tone in a Thursday report. They increased its price target to $100 from $70 and reiterated their Overweight rating.
Over at KeyBanc Capital Markets, John Vinh and Jim Long offered another perspective, noting how the company has said it’s started shipping AI chips to customers — which the analysts believe includes Alphabet’s Google and Amazon Web Services. This prompted the team to boost its price target to $95 from $70 and maintain its Overweight rating on Thursday.
Write to Emily Dattilo at emily.dattilo@dowjones.com