Marvell Technology Group (MRVL +2.50%) stock has switched into a higher gear over the past three months as investors have cheered the chipmaker's strong growth and the moves it has been making to attack the networking and storage end markets. It won't be surprising to see Marvell repeat its robust stock market performance in the second half of 2021 (and beyond).
The company will release its fiscal 2022 second-quarter results on Thursday, Aug. 26, which could help sustain the recent momentum. Let's see why that may be the case.
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Marvell Technology isn't going to run out of steam
Marvell had guided for second-quarter revenue of $1.06 billion in June, which would translate into a 46% jump over the year-ago period's revenue of $727 million. Marvell's organic revenue growth for Q2 would be 17% year over year, excluding the $215 million revenue from Inphi, which was acquired in April this year. Marvell's non-GAAP net income is on track to increase 48% year over year to $0.31 per share in the second quarter.
It is worth noting that Marvell has managed to beat the supply chain constraints bothering the broader semiconductor industry and has catered to the strong demand from customers. The chipmaker has delivered four straight quarters of double-digit percentage growth and it is unlikely to take its foot off the gas this year thanks to a robust supply chain.
Marvell management had pointed out on the June earnings conference call that it has "secured sufficient supply to enable accelerating year-on-year revenue growth" in the second half of the fiscal year. The company also says that it expects the supply scenario to improve further going into the next fiscal year.
Improvements on the supply side will help Marvell take advantage of fast-growing trends in the 5G and data center markets, which have been critical to the growth of the company's networking business. Networking produced 62% of Marvell's core revenue in the first quarter of the fiscal year, with the segment's revenue increasing 26% year over year.
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The deployment of 5G networks has played a key role in this growth. Shipments of "standard and semi-custom product shipments to Samsung and Nokia" to support their 5G infrastructure rollouts sent Marvell's 5G revenue north in Q1. Marvell's 5G revenue has grown for seven straight quarters now, and things could get better as deployments of 5G application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) increase.
Marvell said that a pause in 5G ASIC deployments in China in the first quarter had led to a decline in revenue from this product. However, investors can expect this business to pick up the pace because Nokia, which is one of Marvell's key partners for 5G chips, recently won its first 5G contract in China. This could pave the way for more contracts for Nokia, which could be good for Marvell's prospects.
Coming to the cloud networking business, the demand for Marvell's data processing units (DPUs) continues to strengthen. The chipmaker is sitting on a tremendous opportunity in DPUs, as they are gaining prominence as data center accelerators thanks to their ability to improve the processing power of servers. Additionally, Marvell expects enterprise spending to recover by the end of the year after witnessing a soft business environment in recent months.
In all, Marvell sees multiple catalysts coming into play in the second half of 2021 and beyond, including "an acceleration in our 5G business from both our own product ramps and an increase in 5G adoption in the U.S. and other regions."
Pulling the right strings to ensure long-term growth
Marvell recently announced that it will be acquiring Innovium, a provider of cloud switching solutions, for $1.1 billion. The acquisition will increase Marvell's access to the data center Ethernet switching solution market, which is set to grow at an annual pace of 15% through 2026 and hit $2 billion in revenue.
What's more, Innovium has been selected to supply its chips to a leading cloud customer. Marvell didn't name that customer but added that the new contract is "expected to drive a significant revenue ramp in calendar 2022." Innovium is expected to boost Marvell's revenue by $150 million next fiscal year, and along with the recently acquired Inphi, it will bolster the company's prospects in the cloud computing and data center markets.
All of this indicates that Marvell has solid short- and long-term prospects. So it won't be surprising to see it deliver impressive quarterly results and a sunny outlook, which should help this growth stock sustain its momentum and deliver more upside.
