View Vexes Marvell

Shares of Marvell Technology (MRVL) fell nearly 10% Friday after the company offered a raft of bad news for investors.

Second-quarter sales at the chipmaker fell short of expectations, and inventory was up, the company said in a quarterly update after the bell on Thursday.

Additionally, the company offered disappointing guidance for the third quarter and lowered full-year sales projections on expected weak sales of several key products.

Further, Marvell had no real update on its ongoing options probe -- the same probe that precluded the company from announcing its bottom line for the second quarter or giving out any concrete details about the period's results other than the top-line number.

"It appears from here that there are challenges for the back half [of the year] that we have to take into account for our growth prospects," company CFO George Hervey said on a conference call. "This is a temporary period that we're going through."

Some analysts bought the company's line. American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu called the company's revenue miss a "surprise" and lowered his price target to $27 from $30.

But he argued that the company's move to lower guidance was an appropriate, realistic response to market conditions.

"In our view, MRVL remains among the highest-quality, high-growth companies (20% to 25% organic, 30% to 35% with acquisitions) in large-cap technology," said Wu in a research report in which he reiterated his buy rating on the stock. (American Technology Research does not do investment banking.)