Nvidia, Marvell shares rise after Kaufman upgrade; analyst sees better PC demand

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Nvidia, Marvell shares rise after Kaufman upgrade

NEW YORK — Shares Nvidia Corp. and Marvell Technology Group Ltd. rose Wednesday as Kaufman Bros. upgraded the chip makers, saying both should benefit from improving demand for personal computers.

Nvidia was up 46 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $18.48 in morning trading, while Marvell rose 55 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $20.81.

In a note to investors, Kaufman analyst Suji De Silva upgraded Marvell to “Buy” from “Hold” and raised his price target to $25 from $20. He said the Santa Clara, Calif., company should “see continued strong growth” in its data storage business, which makes up about half the company’s revenue.

He said he expects Marvell’s storage business to grow revenue by 18 percent in its next fiscal year, which begins in February.

De Silva said Nvidia, a company also based in Santa Clara that makes graphics chips for PCs, still faces obstacles: supply constraints, competition from rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and uncertainty over the launch of new products.

But he added that Nvidia “remains well positioned to benefit from improving computing graphics sales as PC unit demand and mix steadily improve in 2010.”

He said graphic chip sales should improve as Windows and Apple computers transition to new operating systems. And Nvidia’s biggest rival, Intel Corp., has decided to de-emphasize its competing processors, he said.

De Silva upgraded the company to “Buy” from “Hold” as well, and hiked his price target to $22 from $14.