Computer chipmaker Marvell Technology Inc. delivered strong third-quarter earnings results today as it continues to benefit from the seemingly never-ending global shortage of semiconductors.

Not only did it easily beat expectations, but it also offered strong guidance for the fourth quarter that sent its stock surging in extended trading.

The company reported a profit before certain costs such as stock compensation of $364 million, or 43 cents per share in earnings. Revenue for the period came to $1.21 billion, up 61% from a year ago. Analysts had been modeling earnings of 38 cents per share on revenue of $1.15 billion.

Marvell’s stock gained more than 16% on the report.

Marvell designs a variety of data storage and networking chips that are primarily sold to cloud computing providers and companies in the automotive and communications industries. It’s a much smaller player in the computer chip business than the likes of Intel Corp. and Nvidia Corp., but it has a strong presence and is growing fast in the primary segments in which it operates.

Marvell Chief Executive Matt Murphy (pictured), said the company’s results exceeded the high end of its own guidance, with revenue growing across each of the five markets it operates in.

Revenue growth was strong in Marvell’s data center segment, which did $499.7 million in sales, up by an impressive 109% from the same period a year ago. That was not the best-performing division, though, as the company’s smaller automotive and industrial chip business grew even faster, by 114%, generating $66.6 million in sales.

Marvell’s carrier infrastructure unit added $215.1 million in sales, up 28%, while the enterprise networking segment earned $247.2 million, up 56%. The company’s consumer chips unit added $182.5 million in revenue, up 20%.

Analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research told SiliconANGLE Marvell’s impressive revenue growth was fueled in part by the first-time consolidation of Innovium Inc., a specialist networking chip builder it acquired in August. Marvell paid $1.1 billion to acquire Innovium, but the deal has already begin to pay off with the strong growth in its enterprise networking segment.

“Marvell is firing on all cylinders, with its growth also driven by very strong data center demands.” Mueller added. “Even so, the company’s net loss per share increased, so the management will need to look closely at the cost of that growth in future quarters.”

Moving into the fourth and final quarter of its fiscal 2022 year, Marvell offered an optimistic forecast, saying it expects earnings of between 45 and 51 cents per share, above Wall Street’s target of 42 cents per share. In terms of revenue, the company said it’s looking at $1.32 billion at the midpoint of its forecast range. In contrast, analysts had modeled fourth-quarter revenue of $1.21 billion.

“We are expecting sequential revenue growth of 9% at the midpoint of guidance, led by 5G, which is projected to increased by 30% sequentially, and data center, which is forecast to continue to grow in the double digits,” Murphy said.

Photo: Marvell