Zacks Research Has Optimistic Outlook of NVIDIA Q1 Earnings

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) – Research analysts at Zacks Research raised their Q1 2028 earnings estimates for shares of NVIDIA in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, December 18th. Zacks Research analyst Team now forecasts that the computer hardware maker will earn $1.85 per share for the quarter, up from their previous estimate of $1.81. Zacks Research has a “Strong-Buy” rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for NVIDIA’s current full-year earnings is $2.77 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for NVIDIA’s Q2 2028 earnings at $1.94 EPS and Q3 2028 earnings at $2.06 EPS.

NVDA has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on NVIDIA from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. HSBC set a $320.00 target price on NVIDIA and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. Melius Research boosted their price target on NVIDIA from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Benchmark raised their price objective on shares of NVIDIA from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Wedbush lifted their target price on shares of NVIDIA from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-five have given a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $262.14.

NVIDIA Trading Up 3.9%

NASDAQ NVDA opened at $180.99 on Friday. NVIDIA has a 1 year low of $86.62 and a 1 year high of $212.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 4.47 and a quick ratio of 3.71. The company has a market capitalization of $4.40 trillion, a PE ratio of 44.91, a P/E/G ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 2.29. The company has a fifty day moving average of $185.58 and a 200 day moving average of $174.93.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 19th. The computer hardware maker reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.23 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $57.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $54.66 billion. NVIDIA had a net margin of 53.01% and a return on equity of 99.24%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 62.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.81 EPS.

NVIDIA Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.01 per share. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 4th. NVIDIA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 0.99%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Mark A. Stevens sold 350,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.73, for a total value of $63,605,500.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 7,049,803 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,281,160,699.19. This trade represents a 4.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Colette Kress sold 30,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.11, for a total value of $5,432,355.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 1,286,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $229,196,578.86. This trade represents a 2.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,163,974 shares of company stock valued at $396,087,917. 4.17% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NVIDIA

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of NVIDIA by 1.0% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 978,208,862 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $154,556,803,000 after buying an additional 9,554,857 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in NVIDIA by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 579,213,497 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $91,150,170,000 after acquiring an additional 8,521,936 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its stake in NVIDIA by 267,959.7% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 382,373,765 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $64,976,521,000 after purchasing an additional 382,231,120 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of NVIDIA during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $51,386,863,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in shares of NVIDIA by 2.9% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 206,794,926 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $22,412,434,000 after purchasing an additional 5,896,735 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.27% of the company’s stock.

NVIDIA News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting NVIDIA this week:

• Positive Sentiment: U.S. review could pave way for H200 shipments to China — reports say the administration launched a review that might allow exports of Nvidia’s H200 AI chips to China, which would materially expand addressable demand and revenue prospects. US launches review of advanced Nvidia AI chip sales to China
• Positive Sentiment: Regulatory overhang removed on Intel tie-up — U.S. antitrust agencies cleared Nvidia’s investment in Intel, reducing a near-term regulatory risk and supporting strategic partnerships that could help scale production and go-to-market efforts. Nvidia-Intel deal cleared by US antitrust agencies
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts getting more bullish — several firms (Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated buy at $275, Truist raised its PT to $275, Zacks boosted EPS estimates) are lifting targets or confirming buys, helping technical momentum and positioning for upside. MarketScreener Latest Ratings
• Neutral Sentiment: Management clarifies OpenAI investment status — Jensen Huang said Nvidia has not yet funded its announced plan around OpenAI, which removes some rumor-driven uncertainty but leaves the timing and size of any investment unclear. Nvidia has not given OpenAI ‘a penny yet,’ CEO Huang tells Fox Business
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling disclosed — long-time director Harvey Jones sold 250,000 shares (~$44M), a headline that can spook some investors even though large insiders often diversify. Nvidia director sells $44 million in stock

NVIDIA Company Profile

NVIDIA Corporation, founded in 1993 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is a global technology company that designs and develops graphics processing units (GPUs) and system-on-chip (SoC) technologies. Co-founded by Jensen Huang, who serves as president and chief executive officer, along with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, NVIDIA has grown from a graphics-focused chipmaker into a broad provider of accelerated computing hardware and software for multiple industries.

The company’s product portfolio spans discrete GPUs for gaming and professional visualization (marketed under the GeForce and NVIDIA RTX lines), high-performance data center accelerators used for AI training and inference (including widely adopted platforms such as the A100 and H100 series), and Tegra SoCs for automotive and edge applications.