NVIDIA Stock Price Falls 4.7% After Analyst Downgrade

NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA) saw its stock price drop by 4.7% during trading on Wednesday. This decline followed a decision by Morgan Stanley to lower their price target on the stock from $166.00 to $152.00. Despite this downgrade, Morgan Stanley maintains an overweight rating on NVIDIA. During the trading session, NVIDIA's stock dipped as low as $121.72 before closing slightly higher at $122.98. The volume of shares traded on this day was 135,322,529, a significant decrease of 49% compared to the average session volume of 267,683,500 shares. Previously, the stock had closed at $128.99.

Other analysts have also provided insights on NVIDIA shares. Redburn Atlantic began coverage on the stock with a "buy" rating and a target price of $178.00. Additionally, Needham & Company LLC raised their target from $145.00 to $160.00 while also assigning a "buy" rating. Barclays recalibrated their price target from $160.00 to $175.00, maintaining an "overweight" rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus similarly increased their target from $165.00 to $180.00 and recommended the stock as a "buy." Citigroup also lifted their target from $170.00 to $175.00, ranking the stock as "buy." Among analysts’ ratings, four have given a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating, and two have issued a strong buy rating. MarketBeat indicates that the general consensus rating for NVIDIA is a "Moderate Buy" with an average price target of $166.23.

Insider Transactions

In recent insider trading, executive vice president Ajay K. Puri sold 36,462 shares of NVIDIA stock at an average price of $151.10, amounting to $5,509,408.20. This sale reduced his ownership in the company to approximately 3,902,888 shares, valued at about $589,726,376.80. Another insider, Director John Dabiri, sold 716 shares at an average price of $142.00, totaling $101,672. Following this sale, he still holds 19,942 shares worth $2,831,764. In the last quarter, insiders sold a cumulative 1,108,348 shares of NVIDIA stock for around $146.5 million, representing about 4.23% of the total shares.

Institutional Investor Activity

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their holdings in NVIDIA. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc. purchased a new position valued at $27,000 in the third quarter. Similarly, Quest Partners LLC and the University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. also acquired new stakes in NVIDIA during the second quarter, both valued at approximately $27,000 and $31,000, respectively. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. and West Financial Advisors LLC added new positions worth around $34,000 and $36,000, respectively. Institutional investors collectively hold 65.27% of NVIDIA's stock.

NVIDIA's Current Financial Standing

NVIDIA has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 4.10, and a quick ratio of 3.64. The company's 50-day moving average stands at $137.91, while its 200-day moving average is $129.44. NVIDIA currently boasts a market capitalization of $3.01 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.40, and a PEG ratio of 2.65, as well as a beta of 1.64. In its latest earnings report issued on November 20, NVIDIA delivered earnings per share (EPS) of $0.81, surpassing analysts' expectations of $0.69. The company experienced a net margin of 55.69% and a return on equity of 114.83%. Revenue for the quarter totaled $35.08 billion, exceeding the forecast of $33.15 billion and increasing 93.6% from the same quarter the previous year. Analysts predict an EPS of 2.78 for NVIDIA in the current year.

Dividend Announcement

NVIDIA has also announced its quarterly dividend, which was paid on December 27. Shareholders registered on December 5 received a dividend of $0.01 per share, which equates to an annualized dividend of $0.04, yielding 0.03%. The ex-dividend date was December 5, and NVIDIA's dividend payout ratio is 1.57%.

NVIDIA Company Overview

NVIDIA Corporation specializes in graphics, computing, and networking solutions across various regions, including the United States, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and internationally. Its Graphics segment offers GeForce GPUs for gaming and PCs, the GeForce NOW game streaming service, and solutions for gaming platforms. NVIDIA also provides Quadro/NVIDIA RTX GPUs for enterprise workstation graphics, virtual GPU software for cloud-based computing, automotive platforms for infotainment systems, and Omniverse software for creating and managing metaverse and 3D internet applications.

NVIDIA, Stock, Analyst