NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) Shares Down 0.2% – What’s Next?

NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA)’s stock price traded down 0.2% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $143.95 and last traded at $144.78. 54,058,367 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 389,890,875 shares. The stock had previously closed at $145.13.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of NVIDIA from $150.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $175.00 price target on shares of NVIDIA in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of NVIDIA from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Craig Hallum lifted their price target on shares of NVIDIA from $125.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of NVIDIA from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $164.15.

NVIDIA Trading Up 0.7 %

The stock’s 50 day moving average is $137.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $124.90. The company has a market capitalization of $3.58 trillion, a PE ratio of 56.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a quick ratio of 3.64, a current ratio of 4.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The computer hardware maker reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.12. NVIDIA had a net margin of 55.69% and a return on equity of 114.83%. The company had revenue of $35.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.38 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 93.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that NVIDIA Co. will post 2.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NVIDIA Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given a dividend of $0.01 per share. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. NVIDIA’s payout ratio is 1.57%.

NVIDIA announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at NVIDIA

In related news, CEO Jen Hsun Huang sold 120,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.33, for a total value of $12,639,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 75,895,836 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,994,108,405.88. This represents a 0.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Tench Coxe sold 1,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.27, for a total transaction of $119,270,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,852,480 shares in the company, valued at $698,025,289.60. The trade was a 14.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,796,986 shares of company stock valued at $214,418,399. 4.23% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NVIDIA

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in NVIDIA by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 546,079,492 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $66,101,133,000 after acquiring an additional 11,525,969 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in NVIDIA by 884.0% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 213,127,959 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $26,329,751,000 after buying an additional 191,469,114 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in NVIDIA by 854.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 182,622,629 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $22,561,200,000 after buying an additional 163,482,580 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in NVIDIA by 3.8% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 180,403,789 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $21,908,236,000 after purchasing an additional 6,526,200 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in NVIDIA by 1.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 146,069,090 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $17,738,630,000 after purchasing an additional 2,042,348 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.27% 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.