Marvell Technology Group (MRVL 1.55%) stock dipped after the company's fiscal 2021 third-quarter earnings report fell slightly short of expectations, but investors looking to buy a hot 5G stock on the cheap should think of grabbing this opportunity with both hands.
Let's take a closer look at Marvell's quarterly performance and see why the chipmaker remains capable of delivering more upside despite some near-term hiccups.
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Marvell Technology falls just short
Marvell's revenue increased 13% year over year to $750 million during the quarter, slightly below Wall Street's expectation of $751 million. Non-GAAP net income rose nearly 50% over the prior-year period to $168.3 million, or $0.25 per share, which was in line with analysts' estimates.
The chipmaker has guided for adjusted earnings of $0.29 per share on revenue of $785 million this quarter. The bottom-line forecast is in line with what analysts were expecting, but the revenue guidance falls slightly short of the $787.4 million consensus. But the near misses in Marvell's quarterly numbers and the guidance shouldn't bother investors, as they should be focusing on the bigger picture, and the problems that plagued the company last quarter shouldn't last for long.
Marvell management pointed out that its sales were affected by supply chain constraints last quarter. CEO Matt Murphy said on the latest earnings conference call:
However, we have begun to experience a number of industrywide supply constraints affecting the type of high-complexity products we provide for data infrastructure.
The rapid recovery this year in the semiconductor industry appears to be stressing significant portions of the supply chain. These supply challenges are currently limiting our ability to fully satisfy the increase in demand for some of our networking products.
Networking products accounted for just over 59% of Marvell's revenue last quarter, so it wasn't surprising to see supply chain constraints impacting the overall business. But the company's guidance indicates that it looks ready to put that setback in the rearview mirror.
Investors need to focus on the bigger picture
Marvell Technology had delivered $718 million in revenue in Q4 of fiscal 2020, indicating that its revenue could grow in the double digits this quarter going by the guidance. More importantly, it anticipates a non-GAAP gross margin of 64% this quarter, an improvement of 170 basis points over the prior-year period.
The good news for Marvell investors is that it expects the business environment to improve further in the forthcoming quarters, driven by the deployment of 5G wireless networks into more markets. Marvell pointed out that 5G deployments in China drove demand for application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, and Samsung turned out to be an additional catalyst in Q3 thanks to the partnership between the two companies.
And now, Marvell expects 5G deployments to pick up the pace in areas beyond China, including the U.S. and Japan, which should increase the addressable market for its 5G chips. The fact that the company has landed another regional customer that will use its embedded processors in 5G base stations should help maintain its impressive pace of growth in the 5G business, which has seen five straight quarters of sequential growth.
Marvell is also looking to expand its addressable opportunity in 5G chips by tapping the virtualized radio access network (vRAN) market with a new product. The chipmaker claims that the addition of vRAN technology will allow its 5G platform to support all RAN architectures that will be able to operate on a common software and hardware framework.
This could be a big deal for Marvell in the long run, as the vRAN market is expected to clock a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19% through 2030, according to Transparency Market Research. Meanwhile, the overall market for 5G chipsets is expected to post a CAGR of 56% in the coming years, according to another third-party report.
Marvell has been striking partnerships with major 5G infrastructure players to take advantage of this huge opportunity that lies in front of it. That's why investors need to look past Wall Street expectations, as the demand for Marvell's chips should continue to remain strong for a long time to come thanks to 5G, and it'll help the company remain a top growth stock.
It should also be noted that the company's problem is not demand related but supply related, which is a good thing to have. All of this indicates why it would be a smart idea to take advantage of the recent dip in Marvell's shares, especially considering that the stock trades at a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 20, which is significantly lower than the five-year average multiple of 45.
