What happened
The stock of Marvell Technology (MRVL 4.47%) was soaring Thursday morning. The designer of semiconductors for mobile and embedded systems reported solid fourth-quarter results Wednesday night, edging out analyst estimates across the board. By 11:25 a.m. EST today, Marvell's stock was trading 13.2% higher.
So what
Fourth-quarter revenue fell 3.6% year over year to $718 million, but your average analyst would have settled for sales near $713 million. Adjusted earnings decreased by 32%, stopping at $0.17 per share. That was still a penny above Wall Street's consensus estimate. Management also set up first-quarter guidance targets just ahead of current Street estimates, aiming for earnings of approximately $0.14 per share on sales in the neighborhood of $680 million.
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Now what
The first-quarter guidance figures account for a revenue slowdown of roughly 5% due to supply chain disruption from the COVID-19 coronavirus, and the given guidance ranges were wider than usual in order to account for the market uncertainties this virus is creating. At the same time, Marvell is poised to deliver 5G-capable networking chips to several leading makers of wireless infrastructure equipment.
