Marvell Tech: The Plunge before tomorrow's Earnings Call

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL) reports Q2 earnings tomorrow (8/28) after the close but got a kick in the pants downgrade from Jefferies & Co yesterday.  The result sent shares down 10% this week and with mixed analyst reviews, who do you believe?

Jefferies & Co, citing slowing growth in the hard-disk drive market and market share losses at Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) downgraded shares of Marvell from Buy to Hold and slashed its price target from $22 to $15. The firm also cut 2008 EPS estimates from $0.97 to $0.91 and 2009 from $1.10 to $0.97.

The analyst said Marvell will no longer be able to drive top-line growth at premium growth rates because of sluggish demand for hard-disk drives. They also said Marvell appears to have lost the design for Research In Motion's Javelin to Freescale.

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In an opposing view, analysts at Cowen & Co. were out positive on Marvell today. The firm reiterated their Outperform rating on Marvell ahead of the company's quarter results on Thursday, August 28, after market close. The firm said, "our checks suggest that MRVL has seen some important wins at INTC (Nasdaq: INTC) and MU (NYSE: MU); product ramp of 3G devices and expansion of XScale customer base beyond RIMM; 802.11n penetration; GPS product integration & licensing update; progress on integrated products for mobile handsets (i.e., WiFi + Bluetooth + GPS) where MRVL is clearly behind competitors."

Masters, its a roll of the dice on tomorrow's call, but the 10% downswing before the call and with the positive comments by Cowen, any good news could send this stock flying.

SOURCE: http://www.streetinsider.com/Downgrades/Marvell+Tech+(MRVL)+Sinks+On+Analyst+Downgrade/3942456.html