Merit Financial Group LLC Boosts Stake in NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA) by 53.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 486,396 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 170,157 shares during the quarter. NVIDIA accounts for 1.2% of Merit Financial Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in NVIDIA were worth $65,318,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Hoertkorn Richard Charles boosted its position in NVIDIA by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Hoertkorn Richard Charles now owns 3,490 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $424,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the period. Smart Portfolios LLC raised its stake in shares of NVIDIA by 2.7% during the third quarter. Smart Portfolios LLC now owns 2,805 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $341,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Palisade Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in NVIDIA by 0.5% in the third quarter. Palisade Asset Management LLC now owns 15,363 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $1,866,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Kwmg LLC grew its position in NVIDIA by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Kwmg LLC now owns 13,067 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $1,755,000 after buying an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Total Wealth Planning LLC increased its stake in NVIDIA by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Total Wealth Planning LLC now owns 2,275 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $276,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.27% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NVDA has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. HSBC reduced their price target on shares of NVIDIA from $195.00 to $185.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of NVIDIA in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on NVIDIA from $140.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Redburn Atlantic started coverage on NVIDIA in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $178.00 target price for the company. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of NVIDIA from $150.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $166.23.

NVIDIA Trading Up 5.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ NVDA opened at $124.76 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $3.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.10, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.62. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $135.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $129.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 3.64 and a current ratio of 4.10. NVIDIA Co. has a 52 week low of $66.25 and a 52 week high of $153.13.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The computer hardware maker reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.12. NVIDIA had a return on equity of 114.83% and a net margin of 55.69%. The business had revenue of $35.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.15 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.38 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 93.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that NVIDIA Co. will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NVIDIA Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th were paid a dividend of $0.01 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.03%. NVIDIA’s payout ratio is 1.57%.

Insider Transactions at NVIDIA

In other NVIDIA news, EVP Ajay K. Puri sold 36,462 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.10, for a total transaction of $5,509,408.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 3,902,888 shares in the company, valued at $589,726,376.80. This trade represents a 0.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John Dabiri sold 716 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.00, for a total value of $101,672.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 19,942 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,831,764. This trade represents a 3.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,108,348 shares of company stock worth $146,506,958. Insiders own 4.23% of the company’s stock.

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.