NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) Trading Up 1.7% After Analyst Upgrade

NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA)’s stock price was up 1.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Raymond James raised their price target on the stock from $140.00 to $170.00. Raymond James currently has a strong-buy rating on the stock. NVIDIA traded as high as $148.76 and last traded at $148.74. Approximately 63,283,031 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average daily volume of 399,671,313 shares. The stock had previously closed at $146.27.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on NVIDIA from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of NVIDIA in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Mizuho boosted their target price on NVIDIA from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $138.00 price target on shares of NVIDIA in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic started coverage on shares of NVIDIA in a report on Tuesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $178.00 price objective on the stock. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $152.40.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NVIDIA news, CEO Jen Hsun Huang sold 120,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.03, for a total transaction of $14,283,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 76,494,995 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,105,199,254.85. This represents a 0.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Mark A. Stevens sold 155,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.27, for a total transaction of $20,501,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 8,100,117 shares in the company, valued at $1,071,402,475.59. This represents a 1.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,156,270 shares of company stock valued at $254,784,327 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 4.23% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NVIDIA

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of NVIDIA in the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. acquired a new stake in NVIDIA during the first quarter worth approximately $27,000. HBC Financial Services PLLC acquired a new stake in NVIDIA during the first quarter worth approximately $30,000. TCTC Holdings LLC acquired a new stake in NVIDIA during the first quarter worth approximately $82,000. Finally, Delos Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in NVIDIA by 600.0% during the first quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 112 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $101,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. 65.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NVIDIA Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average is $130.18 and its 200-day moving average is $119.70. The stock has a market cap of $3.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 4.27 and a quick ratio of 3.79.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer hardware maker reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.04. NVIDIA had a net margin of 55.04% and a return on equity of 113.50%. The firm had revenue of $30.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $28.74 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.25 earnings per share. NVIDIA’s revenue was up 122.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that NVIDIA Co. will post 2.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NVIDIA Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 12th were paid a dividend of $0.01 per share. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.03%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 12th. NVIDIA’s dividend payout ratio is currently 1.88%.

NVIDIA declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, August 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $50.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the computer hardware maker to buy up to 1.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is 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.