Citigroup Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) Stock

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) had its target price raised by Citigroup from $150.00 to $170.00 in a report published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the computer hardware maker’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on NVDA. TD Cowen raised shares of NVIDIA to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on NVIDIA from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on NVIDIA from $120.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Melius Research lifted their target price on NVIDIA from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of NVIDIA in a report on Monday, August 5th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $152.40.

NVIDIA Trading Down 3.3 %

Shares of NVDA stock opened at $141.98 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $3.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 66.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 4.27 and a quick ratio of 3.79. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $130.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $120.32. NVIDIA has a 1 year low of $45.01 and a 1 year high of $149.77.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer hardware maker reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.04. NVIDIA had a net margin of 55.04% and a return on equity of 113.50%. The company had revenue of $30.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $28.74 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.25 earnings per share. NVIDIA’s quarterly revenue was up 122.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that NVIDIA will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current year.

NVIDIA Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 12th were given a $0.01 dividend. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.03%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 12th. NVIDIA’s dividend payout ratio is currently 1.88%.

NVIDIA declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, August 28th that allows the company to repurchase $50.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the computer hardware maker to buy up to 1.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at NVIDIA

In other news, CEO Jen Hsun Huang sold 120,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.76, for a total transaction of $13,291,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 76,375,705 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,459,373,085.80. This represents a 0.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Tench Coxe sold 1,000,000 shares of NVIDIA stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.27, for a total value of $119,270,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,852,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $698,025,289.60. This trade represents a 14.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 2,156,270 shares of company stock worth $254,784,327. Corporate insiders own 4.23% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NVIDIA

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NVDA. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. boosted its holdings in NVIDIA by 897.5% in the second quarter. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. now owns 119,110 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $14,715,000 after purchasing an additional 107,169 shares in the last quarter. Truepoint Inc. raised its holdings in NVIDIA by 914.1% during the second quarter. Truepoint Inc. now owns 12,990 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $1,605,000 after purchasing an additional 11,709 shares in the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of NVIDIA by 683.9% during the 2nd quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 238,829 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $29,505,000 after buying an additional 208,362 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd grew its position in shares of NVIDIA by 1,106.0% in the 2nd quarter. Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd now owns 532,285 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $65,758,000 after buying an additional 488,148 shares during the last quarter. 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.