NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) Shares Up 1% on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) traded up 1% on Thursday after Phillip Securities upgraded the stock from a moderate buy rating to a strong-buy rating. The company traded as high as $173.64 and last traded at $173.09. 59,600,635 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 264,597,909 shares. The stock had previously closed at $171.37.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on NVDA. Citigroup lifted their target price on NVIDIA from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Barclays lifted their target price on NVIDIA from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 17th. Arete Research upgraded NVIDIA to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. HSBC downgraded NVIDIA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $120.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating on shares of NVIDIA in a report on Thursday, May 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-three have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NVIDIA has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $181.22.

Insider Activity at NVIDIA

In related news, CEO Jen Hsun Huang sold 75,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.36, for a total value of $12,327,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 74,648,225 shares in the company, valued at $12,269,182,261. This represents a 0.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Colette Kress sold 27,650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.89, for a total value of $4,725,108.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 2,984,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $510,023,939.24. This represents a 0.92% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 4,814,800 shares of company stock worth $709,172,753 over the last quarter. Insiders own 4.17% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NVIDIA

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Tacita Capital Inc acquired a new stake in NVIDIA in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Vision Financial Markets LLC purchased a new position in NVIDIA in the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in NVIDIA in the 2nd quarter valued at $55,000. Copia Wealth Management purchased a new position in NVIDIA in the 4th quarter valued at $50,000. Finally, LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in NVIDIA in the 4th quarter valued at $54,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.27% of the company’s stock.

NVIDIA Stock Up 1.0%

The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $145.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $129.63. The company has a current ratio of 3.39, a quick ratio of 2.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a market cap of $4.22 trillion, a PE ratio of 55.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 2.13.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The computer hardware maker reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.06). NVIDIA had a return on equity of 105.09% and a net margin of 51.69%. The company had revenue of $44.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $43.09 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.61 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 69.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that NVIDIA Corporation will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current year.

NVIDIA Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 11th were paid a $0.01 dividend. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 11th. NVIDIA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 1.29%.

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.