MRVL · Technology(semiconductors & related devices) · 8 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2026-01-31
Marvell Technology, Inc. reported revenue of $8.2 billion in fiscal 2026. Of the $8.1 billion its operations generated over 8 years, 58.7% went to acquisitions and 42.3% to buybacks. On the accounting screens, it passes 7 of 9 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 3.43 is in the safe zone and its Beneish M-score is above the -1.78 line; 2 of the six cross-checks between its statements fire.
Revenue, fiscal 20268.2B
Operating margin16.1%gross margin 51.0%
Return on invested capital6.2%-1.2% on average over 5 years
Free cash flow after stock pay805.6M9.8% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA1.2×net debt 1.8B
Piotroski F-score7/9tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
-2.5B02.5B5.0B7.5B10.0B
2019
2020Revenue 2.7BOperating income -243.4M
2021Revenue 3.0BOperating income -258.4M
2022Revenue 4.5BOperating income -347.7M
2023Revenue 5.9BOperating income 238.0M
2024Revenue 5.5BOperating income -567.7M
2025Revenue 5.8BOperating income -720.3M
2026Revenue 8.2BOperating income 1.3B
20192020202120222023202420252026
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
7 yrs
Revenue
+11.4%
+22.5%
—
Operating income
+77.1%
—
—
Free cash flow per share
+8.1%
+8.6%
—
Dividend per share
-0.6%
-0.4%
—
Shares
+0.7%
+5.4%
—
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
18.7%
Return on assets
12.0%
Asset turnover
0.37×
Research & development
25.3% of revenue
Overheads (SG&A)
9.4% of revenue
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
-1.0B01.0B2.0B3.0B
2019
2020Net income 1.6BFree cash flow 278.4MAfter stock-based pay 36.2M
2021Net income -277.3MFree cash flow 710.5MAfter stock-based pay 469.0M
2022Net income -421.0MFree cash flow 650.1MAfter stock-based pay 189.4M
2023Net income -163.5MFree cash flow 1.1BAfter stock-based pay 530.2M
2024Net income -933.4MFree cash flow 1.0BAfter stock-based pay 424.4M
2025Net income -885.0MFree cash flow 1.4BAfter stock-based pay 799.2M
2026Net income 2.7BFree cash flow 1.4BAfter stock-based pay 805.6M
20192020202120222023202420252026
Where 8 years of operating cash went, 2019–2026
8.1B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 19%1.5B
Acquisitions 59%4.7B
Dividends 17%1.3B
Share buybacks 42%3.4B
More than it generated: funded with cash or new debt -37%-3.0B
Over the same years it paid 3.3B in stock. 124.8M of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$-2.00$0.00$2.00$4.00
2019
2020Earnings per share $2.34Free cash flow per share $0.41Dividend per share $0.24
2021Earnings per share $-0.41Free cash flow per share $1.06Dividend per share $0.24
2022Earnings per share $-0.53Free cash flow per share $0.82Dividend per share $0.24
2023Earnings per share $-0.19Free cash flow per share $1.27Dividend per share $0.24
2024Earnings per share $-1.08Free cash flow per share $1.20Dividend per share $0.24
2025Earnings per share $-1.02Free cash flow per share $1.61Dividend per share $0.24
2026Earnings per share $3.07Free cash flow per share $1.61Dividend per share $0.24
20192020202120222023202420252026
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
600.0M700.0M800.0M900.0M
2019
2020Diluted shares 676.1M
2021Diluted shares 668.8M
2022Diluted shares 796.9M
2023Diluted shares 851.4M
2024Diluted shares 861.3M
2025Diluted shares 865.5M
2026Diluted shares 869.7M
20192020202120222023202420252026
How strong is the balance sheet?
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt
01.0B2.0B3.0B4.0B
2019
2020
2021Net debt 444.3M
2022Net debt 3.9B
2023Net debt 3.6B
2024Net debt 3.2B
2025Net debt 3.1B
2026Net debt 1.8B
20192020202120222023202420252026
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
1.2×
Interest coverage
7× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
2.01 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
126 days collects in 97d, stock 126d, pays in 98d
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
7of 9 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✓Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforepassed
✕Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)failed
✓Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fellpassed
✓More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforepassed
✕No new sharesShare count did not growfailed
✓Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year beforepassed
✓Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforepassed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
3.43safe zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.15 × 6.56+0.95
Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.06 × 3.26+0.20
Operating income ÷ assets 0.06 × 6.72+0.40
Equity ÷ liabilities 1.79 × 1.05+1.88
Where it misleads: buybacks. A company that returns so much cash that its equity turns small or negative sinks the last two ratios without being anywhere near bankruptcy. Banks and insurers do not fit the model at all.
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
-1.60above the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 1.50+1.38
Gross margin slipping 0.81+0.43
Soft assets 0.83+0.33
Sales growth 1.42+1.27
Slower depreciation 0.95+0.11
Overheads vs sales 0.68-0.12
Profit not in cash 0.04+0.19
Leverage rising 1.09-0.36
Where it misleads: fast growth and acquisitions. Sales growth carries a heavy weight, so a company growing 50% a year scores like a suspect without having done anything. It is a screen from a 1999 study, not an accusation.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
Receivables are growing 113% against revenue growing 42%.
Benign
A shift towards larger customers on longer terms, or sales concentrated at the end of the period.
Worrying
Sales are being made on looser credit, or revenue has been booked that may never be collected.
Reported profit comfortably exceeds the cash generated (2,670M against 1,750M).
Benign
Growth consuming working capital, or the seasonality of the year-end.
Worrying
Profit held up by accounting entries that do not turn into money.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
With a free cash flow margin at or below zero in year ten, the business never generates cash for its owners and a DCF says nothing useful. Set a positive margin for year ten to see what it would take.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.