28-May-08 08:44 ET In Play Marvell: Expect consensus ests to increase, but view weakness in HDDs, consistent execution on margins, and valuation as risk factors - Lehman (38.00 ) -Update : Lehman says that near-term they expect consensus ests to increase driven by better sales and lower operating expenses. However, they think weakness in HDDs, consistent execution on margins, and valuation (63x incl E.S.O.) are risk factors. They expect their sales/eps forecast of $780 mln/$0.13 in FQ1 and $3,343 mln/$0.69 in F09 to increase due to upside in Cellular and Ethernet., and lower op ex. They say MRVL trades at a modest discount to their comm. I.C. universe on EV/sales (2.4x vs 2.9x) but is the most expensive 63x including E.S.O.
28-May-08 08:28 ET In Play Marvell: Kaufman expects in-line quarter with steady margin improvement (14.44 ) : Kaufman notes MRVL plans to report fiscal 1Q09 results May 29. Demand from MRVL's storage end-market remains healthy with steady PC demand driving storage order patterns. However, firm believes demand in enterprise/PC networking remains muted reflecting broader economic weakness, limiting significant upside in the quarter. On the whole, firm expects in-line revs of $783.6 mln for fiscal 1Q09, representing a seasonal decline of 7.2% Q/Q. Firm expects continued steady margin improvement and a return to normalized opex levels to drive EPS results in line with consensus $0.13 expectations this quarter. Firm still sees handset semiconductor margin improvement as more of a late-2008 event, limiting gross margin recovery and earnings growth near term. They expect MRVL to guide in line with a typical seasonality in fiscal 2Q09, vs. consensus +3.8% Q/Q expectations.
28-May-08 07:38 ET In Play Friedman Billings sees implications for AAPL chip suppliers BRCM and MRVL as neutral to slightly negative : Friedman Billings says implications for Apple chip suppliers BRCM and MRVL are neutral to slightly negative due to negative PC and iPhone revisions. That said, iPod Classic and Touch units are expected to grow about 15% sequentially in 2Q, PC product builds are expected to decline by about 15% sequentially, and 3G iPhone units are expected to rise by 250% sequentially. Net, net, this should drive flattish to slightly higher 2Q chip consumption by Apple. Firm thinks these largely stable checks suggest that the consumer has not weakened materially, at least at Apple, in the past two months.
