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Over the years, Marvell Technology (MRVL) has built a solid business in developing chips for PC storage. The problem is that, with the emergence of tablets, the market is feeling some pressure. While Marvell has been moving hard into the mobile space, the results have been muted.
So, it should be no surprise that the company’s recent earnings report was fairly lackluster. In fact, the shares were off 8% to $16.75 in morning trading.
In the quarter, Marvell posted a profit of $222.9 million, or $0.33 per share. When adjusted for stock compensation and one-time items, the earnings were $0.40 per share. But the Wall Street consensus was for $0.42 per share.
As for revenues, they increased by 7% to $900.5 million. However, yet again, it came in below the consensus of $925.3 million.
Over the next few quarters, Marvell should be able to regain its footing. The fact is that the company has a standout technology platform and should benefit from the fast-growing mobile market.
But for investors, this is a long time to wait.
The most recent datapoint of significance for investors has to be the U.S. Federal Reserve’s revised summary of economic projections.
The Fed now sees a stronger U.S. economy in 2011, with the world’s largest and most technologically advanced economy expected to grow 3.4% to 3.9%, up from the 3.0% to 3.6% November projection.
The Fed also expects the U.S. economy to grow 3.5% to 4.4% in 2012 and 3.7% to 4.6% in 2013, compared to the November estimates of 3.6% to 4.5% and 3.5% to 4.6%, respectively.
The central bank also see core-PCE inflation, which excludes the often-volatile food and energy components, of 1.0% to 1.3% in 2011, compared to the 0.9% to 1.6% November forecast, and 1.0% to 1.5% in 2012, compared to the 1.0% to 1.6% projection.
Economic Analysis: Of course, the Fed’s latest projections were released before the surge in oil prices to levels near $100 per barrel, but assuming Middle East political stability resumes and prices normalize at $75 to $80, the bias remains toward above-trend growth for the U.S.
For TV watchers and movie buffs who want the latest titles streamed straight to their living room, the options keep growing. And as they do, so does the obvious temptation — to drop cable service, once and for all.
Just this week, Amazon ( AMZN ) jumped into the streaming game, offering unlimited, free streaming for $79 per year as part of Amazon Prime membership. It’s the latest entrant in the bid to capture viewers via laptop or desktop — already nearly 144 million consumers watch videos online, up 3.1% from last year, reports Nielsen. And while most of those are still YouTube fare like Keyboard Cat and Justin Bieber outtakes, the options for watching movies and TV shows are growing rapidly.
The new offering from Amazon competes with Netflix ( NFLX ) , which offers some 11,000 titles to 20 million customers. Network sites, Hulu and Fancast offer current TV shows with limited commercials.
With high unemployment , fears of Fed tightening and worries about Europe’s sovereign debt casting a pall over the market a year ago, I went shopping for stocks. As I said then, I didn’t want to be distracted by interesting but extraneous issues of global finance, focusing instead on the bread and butter of stock investing: revenue and earnings.
I’m glad I did. Stocks have rallied since then, with the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index up 25% through Thursday. The five stocks I recommended last year (and bought myself) were Amazon.com ( AMZN ) , United Therapeutics ( UTHR ) , Under Armour ( UA ) , Salesforce.com ( CRM ) and Chipotle Mexican Grill ( CMG ) . This may be the best portfolio I’ve ever picked: As a group, they have more than doubled, gaining a collective 111%.
Today investors are still fretting about high unemployment, the prospect of higher interest rates and Europe’s debt crisis. So I figured it was a good time to revisit my methodology, both to reassess last year’s picks and come up with some new recommendations.
Barnes & Noble, the Gap, RadioShack, and Sears — that may sound like the lineup at the local mall, but in fact they are just a few of the retailers scheduled to step into the earnings spotlight this week. Following last week’s disappointing January retail sales numbers from the Commerce Department but strong fourth-quarter reports from Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) and Nordstrom (JWN), the coming week will offer plenty more data on the sector for investors to mull over.
Walmart
Bentonville-based Walmart (WMT) offered free holiday shipping, closed its Moscow office and named a chief merchandising officer during its fourth quarter. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast earnings for that period to come to $1.31 per share, up from $1.17 in the same quarter of last year. The world’s largest retailer also is expected to post revenues of $117.7 billion for the three months that ended in January. That’s 3.5% more than a year earlier.
For the full year, the consensus forecast is for earnings of $4.05 per share (+9.6%) on revenue of $423.3 billion (+3.7%).