Key Takeaways
- Demand for Marvell Technology’s AI products soared in the fourth quarter, but the rest of the company’s business stumbled.
- Sales at four of its five divisions declined in the period.
- The maker of integrated circuits gave first-quarter earnings and revenue guidance that missed estimates, and shares fell 7% Friday morning.
Shares of Marvell Technology (MRVL) slipped 7% Friday, a day after the maker of integrated circuits posted a weaker-than-expected first-quarter outlook as soaring demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips didn’t offset declines in the rest of its businesses.
Marvell predicted first-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) would be $0.23, plus or minus $0.05. That was well short of estimates. It sees revenue of $1.15 billion, plus or minus 5%, also missing forecasts.
In the fourth quarter, the company’s adjusted EPS was $0.46, with revenue increasing 0.6% to $1.43 billion. Both were more than anticipated.
Sales fell at four of its five units: enterprise networking (-28%), carrier infrastructure (-38%), consumer (-20%), and automotive/industrial (-17%). However, sales at its data center division, which includes its AI products, soared 54% to $765.3 million, making up 54% of Marvell’s total revenue.
CEO Matt Murphy remained upbeat, saying while the company anticipates soft demand continuing to impact consumer, carrier infrastructure, and enterprise networking divisions 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.”
He was also bullish on AI, saying the company expects “continued sequential growth in our data center revenue with initial shipments of our cloud-optimized silicon programs for AI complementing our electro-optics franchise” in the first quarter.
Marvell Technology shares were down about 7% to $79.29 as of 10:39 ET Friday but are up about 83% in the past year.
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