06:43 AM EST, 12/04/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Marvell Technology ( MRVL ) shares spiked early Wednesday as the semiconductor solutions provider issued an upbeat fiscal fourth-quarter earnings outlook at the midpoint, while its results in the prior three-month period topped market estimates.

The company expects per-share adjusted earnings to be at $0.59, plus or minus $0.05, for the ongoing quarter while revenue is expected to come in at $1.8 billion, plus or minus 5%. The current consensus on FactSet is for non-GAAP EPS of $0.56 and revenue of $1.73 billion. Shares of the company jumped 14% in premarket activity.

"For the fourth quarter, we are forecasting another 19% sequential revenue growth at the midpoint of guidance, while year-over-year, we expect revenue growth to accelerate significantly to 26%," Chief Executive Matt Murphy said in a late Tuesday statement. "The exceptional performance in the third quarter, and our strong forecast for the fourth quarter, are primarily driven by our custom (artificial intelligence) silicon programs, which are now in volume production, further augmented by robust ongoing demand from cloud customers."

For the three months through Nov. 2, the company's adjusted EPS advanced to $0.43 from $0.30 the year before, surpassing the Street's view of $0.41. Revenue grew 7% year over year to $1.52 billion, ahead of analysts' $1.46 billion estimate.

Revenue from Marvell's ( MRVL ) data center segment surged 98% to $1.1 billion, buoyed by a "significant step-up in the company's AI silicon ramp," Murphy said during an earnings call, according to a FactSet transcript. Automotive and industrial revenue dropped 22% year over year to $82.9 million, but increased 9% from the previous quarter.

Sales in the carrier infrastructure division fell 73% year over year to $84.7 million, while enterprise networking declined to $150.9 million from $271.1 million in the prior-year quarter. "We began to see a recovery in both of these end markets, with revenue collectively growing 4% sequentially," Murphy told analysts while talking about the two segments. Consumer revenue decreased by 43% to $96.5 million.

Total operating expenses rose to $1.05 billion from $697.5 million in the 2023 quarter. The company also incurred a restructuring charge of $715 million during the third quarter due to additional investments towards its data center segment, Chief Financial Officer Willem Meintjes told analysts on the call.

"AI continues to lead the way, enabling our data center revenue to almost double year-over-year in the third quarter, and we expect it to continue driving strong growth in the fourth quarter," Murphy said on the call. "With three quarters of strong AI results under our belt for this fiscal year and an even stronger fourth quarter forecast, we are clearly set to significantly exceed the full-year AI revenue target of $1.5 billion outlined earlier this year at our AI event."