Ascent Wealth Partners LLC Purchases 55,424 Shares of NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Ascent Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA) by 928.7% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 61,392 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 55,424 shares during the period. NVIDIA makes up approximately 1.1% of Ascent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 29th largest holding. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in NVIDIA were worth $7,584,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in NVIDIA in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. raised its holdings in NVIDIA by 1,900.0% in the 2nd quarter. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. now owns 200 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new position in NVIDIA in the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. CGC Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in NVIDIA in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree INC. purchased a new position in NVIDIA in the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. 65.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NVIDIA Price Performance

Shares of NVIDIA stock opened at $121.40 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.99 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 70.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.67. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average price of $115.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $108.23. NVIDIA Co. has a one year low of $39.23 and a one year high of $140.76.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer hardware maker reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 analysts’ expectations of $28.74 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.25 EPS. NVIDIA’s revenue was up 122.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that NVIDIA Co. will post 2.65 EPS for the current year.

NVIDIA Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 12th will be given 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 of this dividend is Thursday, September 12th. NVIDIA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.34%.

NVIDIA announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, August 28th that permits the company to buyback $50.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the computer hardware maker to reacquire up to 1.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $135.00 target price on shares of NVIDIA in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of NVIDIA from $145.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of NVIDIA from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of NVIDIA from $144.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Westpark Capital boosted their price objective on shares of NVIDIA from $127.50 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, NVIDIA presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $142.10.

Insider Buying and Selling at NVIDIA

In other news, CEO Jen Hsun Huang sold 120,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.78, for a total value of $14,733,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 79,974,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,819,329,886.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, insider Donald F. Robertson, Jr. sold 4,500 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 492,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $57,370,572.59. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Jen Hsun Huang sold 120,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $122.78, for a total value of $14,733,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 79,974,995 shares in the company, valued at $9,819,329,886.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 4,397,403 shares of company stock valued at $526,762,784 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 4.23% of the company’s stock.

NVIDIA Company Profile

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.