Tonight, semiconductor designer Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) reports second-quarter 2008 results.
After the news comes out, we'll have time aplenty to dissect it. But in these few hours before we begin obsessing over Marvell's short-term progress, let's take a moment to review what investors think about it as a long-term investment. Our tool in this endeavor: Motley Fool CAPS, where we poll more than 34,000 rated investors for their views on more than 5,000 companies, Marvell among them. Here's what Fools have to say about the company.
Up or down?
Nearly 860 investors have submitted ratings on Marvell, and they seem to think it's the eighth wonder of the world.
Among the CAPS population at large, Marvell gets the thumbs-up from 95% of investors. It earns the same approval rating within the elite All-Star player group. That's good enough to earn the stock five CAPS stars out of a possible five -- jackpot!
Within its CAPS peer group, Marvell is tied for top o' the heap:
|
Integrated Circuits Semiconductor Group | |
|---|---|
|
Silicon Image (NASDAQ:SIMG) |
***** |
|
Marvell |
***** |
|
Sigma Designs (NASDAQ:SIGM) |
**** |
|
QLogic (NASDAQ:QLGC) |
*** |
|
Broadcom (NASDAQ:BRCM) |
*** |
Wall Street vs. Main Street
Wall Street largely agrees this time. Eight out of the 11 Marvell-watching analysts we track give the firm the thumbs-up. Perhaps it's the share price development that keeps some analysts away -- over the past 52 weeks, Marvell has underperformed the S&P 500 by a disappointing 11 percentage points.
Bull pitch
The top-rated pitch from the pro-Marvell camp on CAPS goes like this:
This stock is a fast grower that is close to its 52 [week] low of $15.91. Strong demand for consumer devices such as cameras, cell phones, and anything Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) (iPhone, iTV both have [Marvell] chips inside), should fuel above-average growth for Marvell for several years.
Bear pitch
Many of the bearish comments posted on CAPS still focus on Marvell's stock-option backdating scandals. But some players have more hands-on issues with the company, like this one:
May be good from finance viewpoint, but not when seen from the technical side-takeover of the Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) [PXA] family is a mess, you can't get hold of technical docs any more, neither availability of chips... not what I'd expect, despite working with those processors.
Who said that?
To learn the identities of the wise Fools who penned these thoughts, and explore the plethora of additional financial data we've put together on the company, just click here.
And if you're interested in a couple of semiconductor ideas, pick up a free trial pass to Motley Fool Stock Advisor on your way out. We've identified a handful of chipper prospects for our members. Considering that our picks outperform the S&P 500 by a generous margin, you might want to take a look.
Sigma Designs is a Motley Fool Rule Breakers recommendation, and Intel is a Motley Fool Inside Value pick.
Fool contributor Anders Bylund holds no position in any of the companies discussed here. You can check out Anders' holdings if you like, and Foolish disclosure will make your day, every day.
