Nvidia, Coherent, Marvell, Apple in focus as Barclays offers supply chain updates
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Coherent (NYSE:COHR), Marvell (NASDAQ:MRVL) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) were in focus on Wednesday as investment firm Barclays offered an update on the technology supply chain out of Asia.
Nvidia
Even though the company’s Blackwell line of GPUs will be delayed for a period of time, it hasn’t impacted the supply chain yet and the company’s upcoming quarterly results, analyst Tom O’Malley said.
“Conversations are encouraging vs. last checks with capacity for Hopper reaching 400K units/month in Q2, earlier than expected (prior end of Q2), with expectations of 600K units/month by the end of Q3 (vs. 500K prior),” O’Malley wrote in an investor note. “We would expect some of that capacity is related to the lower end H20, as China sales pick up off the bottom, but even assuming ~15% of the mix and standard utilization rates (new capacity close to 50% utilized, moving to 80% over time) it would point to ~$3B in upside in July vs. our prior numbers (we raise Compute to $22.1B from $20.9B).”
Looking ahead, any expansion in capacity could provide further upside in Nvidia’s compute-related revenue, with the question then being how smooth of a transition will there be between Hopper and Blackwell. O’Malley said the delay could be as little as two weeks, but others have said it could be longer due to issues with co-packaged die.
“To us, this seems like the normal cadence of a qualification cycle, not a material design flaw,” O’Malley added. “Current testing capacity for Blackwell is expected to get to over 200K units by year end with Q125 at 250K.”
Barclays has a $145 price target and an Overweight rating on Nvidia.
Marvell, Coherent
O’Malley noted that Coherent and Marvell are the two companies best positioned based on these stronger data points, as both should benefit from the launch of Blackwell, and the higher speed networking required.
“For MRVL’s custom ASIC business specifically, we continue to have conviction that key customers are committed to accelerator order ramps and believe that CRDO’s updated guidance at last earnings confirms this with at least one large customer,” O’Malley wrote.
He also raised his earnings estimates and price target for Coherent, as he now sees the company earning $4.18 per share in 2025, up from $3.99 per share. As such, he boosted his price target to $85 from $66.
Apple iPhone SE coming?
Lastly, O’Malley said he has “growing confidence” that an iPhone SE will be launched in the first-half of 2025, but there are still questions about what type of modem the phone will use.
“Our operating assumption is that there will be a phone launched early in the year but don’t think the modem decision is set,” he explained. “Checks indicate roughly ~15M units as a starting point.”