NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) Trading 1.5% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA)’s stock price shot up 1.5% during trading on Friday after Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on the stock from $130.00 to $155.00. Sanford C. Bernstein currently has an outperform rating on the stock. NVIDIA traded as high as $121.75 and last traded at $119.35. 112,121,375 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 442,790,594 shares. The stock had previously closed at $117.59.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on NVDA. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on NVIDIA from $91.00 to $108.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 20th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on NVIDIA from $144.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Loop Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $175.00 price target on shares of NVIDIA in a report on Monday, August 26th. Wedbush boosted their target price on NVIDIA from $120.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of NVIDIA from $120.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $142.10.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Jen Hsun Huang sold 120,000 shares of NVIDIA stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.81, for a total value of $11,977,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 77,094,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,694,851,450.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, EVP Debora Shoquist sold 150,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.16, for a total value of $17,273,850.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,553,630 shares in the company, valued at approximately $178,914,477.17. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jen Hsun Huang sold 120,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.81, for a total transaction of $11,977,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 77,094,995 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,694,851,450.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 4,021,333 shares of company stock valued at $599,173,182 over the last three months. 4.23% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NVIDIA

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in NVIDIA during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. lifted its position in NVIDIA by 1,900.0% in the second quarter. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. now owns 200 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in NVIDIA in the first quarter worth $26,000. CGC Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in NVIDIA in the second quarter worth $26,000. Finally, Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. purchased a new stake in NVIDIA in the first quarter worth $27,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.27% of the company’s stock.

NVIDIA Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 3.14, a current ratio of 3.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $120.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $103.13. The firm has a market cap of $2.94 trillion, a PE ratio of 69.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.68.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer hardware maker reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $30.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $28.74 billion. NVIDIA had a return on equity of 110.60% and a net margin of 53.40%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 122.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.25 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that NVIDIA Co. will post 2.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NVIDIA Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 12th will be 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 is Thursday, September 12th. NVIDIA’s payout ratio is presently 2.34%.

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