Marvell Technology managed to meet sales expectations while giving the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street enough guidance glitter to applaud.
Networking chip designer Marvell Technology reported first-quarter calendar 2026 revenue of $2.42 billion, up 27.6 per cent from a year earlier.
That was close enough to the $2.41 billion analysts expected, while non-GAAP earnings of 80 cents a share landed near the 79 cents forecast. The outfit reckons second-quarter revenue will come in at about $2.7 billion, roughly three per cent above the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street’s $2.62 billion guess.
Adjusted earnings guidance for the next quarter was 93 cents a share, ahead of the 90 cents analysts had pencilled in.
Not everything sparkled. Adjusted EBITDA was $642.4 million, giving Marvell a 26.6 per cent margin and missing estimates by 28.9 per cent. Operating margin came in at 14 per cent, roughly where it sat a year earlier, while free cash flow margin improved to 20 per cent from 11.3 per cent.
Inventory days outstanding fell to 110 from 118 in the previous quarter which remains five days above the five-year average.
The company’s market value sat at $182.1 billion, which means investors are still pricing in plenty of AI networking magic. Marvell has spent years shifting away from low-margin storage controller chips and towards specialist data processing and networking silicon for data centres, carriers, enterprises and cars.
That pivot has helped sales grow at a compound annual rate of 22.9 per cent across five years, beating the average semiconductor outfit. The shorter-term numbers have been perkier, with annualised revenue growth of 27.7 per cent across the past two years.
This quarter marked the seventh straight quarter of growth, suggesting the current chip upcycle still has legs, though these things rarely run forever.
Management is guiding for 34.6 per cent year-on-year sales growth next quarter, while analysts expect revenue to rise 35.7 per cent across the next 12 months.
The market appeared happy enough, with Marvell shares rising four per cent to $207.55 after the numbers dropped. Still, the EBITDA miss takes some shine off the thing, and inventory remains a number worth watching.
