Marvell Results Top Estimates

(RTTNews) - Chipmaker Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (MRVL) said Thursday after the markets closed that its first quarter profit jumped 87% from last year, as revenue surged 30% amid strong demand for its chips used in 4G mobile phones.

The company's quarterly earnings per share, excluding items, also came in above analysts' expectations as did its quarterly revenue. At the same time, the company gave an upbeat forecast for the current quarter.

"We delivered solid first quarter results, driven by better than expected demand for our LTE solutions," said Dr. Sehat Sutardja, Marvell's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Marvell shares are currently losing 1.86% in after hours trading after closing the day's rgular trading session at $15.59, up 15 cents. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $10.57 to $16.65.

Marvell makes chips for mobile phones and for storage devices. Marvell's storage business, which makes chips for hard disk and solid state drives, has been negatively impacted by slowing demand for desktops and notebooks, as customers switch to post-PC products like tablets and smartphones. Marvell's wireless business makes broadband & wireless transceivers used in phones.

For the first quarter ended May 3, 2014, the Hamilton, Bermuda-based company reported net income of $99.5 million or $0.19 per share, compared to $53.2 million or $0.11 per share for the year-ago quarter.

Excluding items, adjusted net income for the first quarter was $144.2 million or $0.27 per share, compared to $98.1 million or $0.19 per share in the prior year quarter.

On average, 26 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earnf $0.22 per share for the first quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Gross margin for the quarter shrank to 48.4% from 54.3% a year ago on a reported basis, while it narrowed to 48.8% from 54.6% last year on an adjusted basis.

Revenue for the first quarter rose 30% to $957.83 million from $74.37 million in the same quarter last year. Twenty-five analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $892.25 million for the first quarter.

Looking forward to the second quarter, the company forecasts revenue of $940 million to $980 million, earnings per share of $0.21 +/- $0.02 and adjusted earnings per hare of $0.28 +/- $0.02. Analysts currently expect th company to earn $0.26 per share on revenue of $930.10 million for the second quarter.

Marvell said it plans to pay its next quarterly dividend of $0.06 per share on July 2 to all shareholders of record as of June 12.