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Is MRVL Stock a Buy, Sell or Hold at a P/E Multiple of 7.15X?

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Key Takeaways

  • {\"0\":\"MRVL trades at a 7.15X forward P/E, below the industry average of 8.63X.\",\"1\":\"AI chip demand fuels data center revenue growth of 76% year over year for Marvell.\",\"2\":\"Margin pressure, China exposure, and rising competition challenge MRVL\'s outlook.\"}

Marvell Technology (MRVL - Free Report) is currently trading at a discounted valuation, with its forward 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio at 7.15X, which is lower than the Zacks Electronics - Semiconductors industry average of 8.63X.

Given MRVL’s discounted valuation, investors might be wondering: Is this an opportunity to buy, or are there deeper challenges that could keep the stock in check?

MRVL Forward 12 Months (P/E) Valuation Chart

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Product Innovation Positions MRVL for Sustainable Growth

What makes Marvell Technology’s low P/E value more attractive is its robust business prospects. Due to the proliferation of AI and high performance computing among data centers and hyperscalers, MRVL is experiencing massive traction in custom Application Specific Integrated Circuits, Custom high bandwidth memory Compute Architecture, Co-Packaged Optics Platform and Multi-Die Packaging Platform products.

As data centers perform a growing number of AI-related tasks, improvements in networking, interconnect, processing and storage capabilities, requiring high-performance semiconductor solutions become crucial. Marvell Technology is capitalizing on this opportunity with 800G PAM, 400ZR DCI, and 1.6T PAM digital signal processing products. This growth is evident in Marvell Technology’s data center segment, which has taken the lead among all its segments with 76% year-over-year revenue growth in the first quarter of fiscal 2026.

Marvell Technology also plans to expand its customer base among hyperscaler customers that seek to stand out, cut expenses and want to gain more control over their AI infrastructure. Marvell Technology has collaborated with NVIDIA and leveraged the latter's NVLink Fusion platform to build comprehensive rack-scale AI solutions to meet the needs of hyperscalers.

Furthermore, the shift from copper to optical connectivity in AI infrastructure represents a massive growth opportunity for Marvell Technology’s Co-Packaged Optics technology. Marvell Technology is also experiencing a recovery among its enterprise networking and carrier infrastructure segments on the back of the demand rebound. However, Marvell Technology is also facing some challenges.

With all these factors at play, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Marvell Technology’s 2026 revenues is pegged at $8.2 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 42.6%. The consensus mark for earnings is pegged at $2.79 per share, suggesting a whopping 77.7% year-over-year increase.

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Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Key Challenges Faced by Marvell Technology

Marvell is experiencing traction in its AI-focused custom silicon semiconductor business, but the margin in this business is half the story, as the margin in this business is fundamentally lower, affecting MRVL’s gross margin. MRVL’s custom AI silicon, including XPUs, is lowering MRVL’s gross margins due to higher costs associated with manufacturing these chips.

The ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties, like the U.S. government’s evolving stance toward China, from which MRVL gained about 43% of its fiscal 2025 total revenues, are also a concern for the company. Investors’ skepticism has also been intensified by the fear of sanctions and persistent tariff threats to China, where Marvell Technology owns research and development facilities. Furthermore, softness in MRVL’s consumer end market due to volatility in gaming demand and lumpy order patterns in the industrial business has added to investor concerns.

Marvell Technology also faces intense competition from Broadcom (AVGO - Free Report) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD - Free Report) in the AI accelerator space and Micron Technology (MU - Free Report) in the HBM space. Advanced Micro Devices is a strong player in the custom silicon solutions and AI accelerator space with its semi-custom SoC offerings and Instinct Accelerators that power numerous data centers. Advanced Micro Devices’ reconfigurable Alveo Adaptable Accelerator Cards are used to speed up compute-intensive applications in data centers.

Broadcom’s advanced 3.5D XDSiP packaging platform is specifically designed to enhance the performance and efficiency of custom AI XPUs for AI accelerators. Micron Technology is also riding a powerful wave of demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and DRAM products, especially as AI workloads surge. Micron Technology has made significant strides in AI-optimized memory solutions, with its HBM3E products gaining attention for their superior power efficiency and bandwidth. These factors have weighed on MRVL stock’s performance.

Stock Price Performance of MRVL

Marvell Technology has underperformed the Zacks Electronics - Semiconductors industry in the year-to-date period by losing 32.6%.

Marvell Technology YTD Performance Chart

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Conclusion: Hold MRVL Stock for Now

Marvell Technology is facing several headwinds, including geopolitical tension, shrunken margins and growing competition across its end markets. However, the company has strong long-term fundamentals supported by its strong foothold in the data center and high-speed networking market.

Considering all these factors, we suggest that investors should retain this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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