NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) Shares Up 0.9% on Analyst Upgrade

NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares were up 0.9% during mid-day trading on Friday after Bank of America raised their price target on the stock from $165.00 to $190.00. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the stock. NVIDIA traded as high as $138.90 and last traded at $138.23. Approximately 59,457,785 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 418,120,406 shares. The stock had previously closed at $136.93.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on NVDA. TD Cowen raised shares of NVIDIA to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $150.00 price target on shares of NVIDIA in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. HSBC upped their price objective on shares of NVIDIA from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of NVIDIA in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on NVIDIA from $120.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $143.07.

Insider Transactions at NVIDIA

In related news, insider Donald F. Robertson, Jr. sold 4,500 shares of NVIDIA stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.51, for a total transaction of $524,295.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 492,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $57,370,572.59. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other NVIDIA news, insider Donald F. Robertson, Jr. sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.51, for a total value of $524,295.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 492,409 shares in the company, valued at $57,370,572.59. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Mark A. Stevens sold 40,000 shares of NVIDIA stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $121.01, for a total value of $4,840,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 8,380,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,014,077,958.17. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,996,270 shares of company stock worth $347,729,127 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 4.23% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NVIDIA

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NVDA. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in NVIDIA by 884.0% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 213,127,959 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $26,329,751,000 after buying an additional 191,469,114 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of NVIDIA by 854.1% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 182,622,629 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $22,561,200,000 after acquiring an additional 163,482,580 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of NVIDIA by 870.3% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 102,422,225 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $12,658,922,000 after purchasing an additional 91,867,031 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of NVIDIA by 1,123.2% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 92,039,713 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $11,371,255,000 after purchasing an additional 84,515,429 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of NVIDIA by 808.6% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 82,689,605 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $10,215,474,000 after purchasing an additional 73,589,208 shares during the period. 65.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NVIDIA Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 3.79 and a current ratio of 4.27. The company has a fifty day moving average of $121.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $112.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.39 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 80.70, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.67.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer hardware maker reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.04. NVIDIA had a return on equity of 113.50% and a net margin of 55.04%. The company had revenue of $30.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $28.74 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.25 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 122.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that NVIDIA Co. will post 2.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NVIDIA Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 12th were issued a $0.01 dividend. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 12th. NVIDIA’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2.34%.

NVIDIA declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, August 28th that allows the company to buyback $50.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the computer hardware maker to purchase up to 1.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA Corporation provides graphics and compute and networking solutions in the United States, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and internationally. The Graphics segment offers GeForce GPUs for gaming and PCs, the GeForce NOW game streaming service and related infrastructure, and solutions for gaming platforms; Quadro/NVIDIA RTX GPUs for enterprise workstation graphics; virtual GPU or vGPU software for cloud-based visual and virtual computing; automotive platforms for infotainment systems; and Omniverse software for building and operating metaverse and 3D internet applications.