NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) Stock Price Down 4.3% After Analyst Downgrade

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares traded down 4.3% on Monday after Evercore downgraded the stock from an outperform rating to a positive rating. The company traded as low as $170.24 and last traded at $178.67. 455,532,983 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 202% from the average daily volume of 150,715,156 shares. The stock had previously closed at $186.64.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $335.00 target price on shares of NVIDIA in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Robert W. Baird cut NVIDIA from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $500.00 to $200.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen downgraded NVIDIA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 24th. Yorkville Ives began coverage on NVIDIA in a report on Tuesday, October 6th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $300.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Melius Research lowered their price objective on NVIDIA from $420.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 2nd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-six have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $314.24.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Colette Kress sold 34,918 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $219.05, for a total transaction of $7,648,787.90. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 765,103 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $167,595,812.15. This represents a 4.36% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Mark A. Stevens sold 622,239 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $231.62, for a total value of $144,122,997.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,336,531 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $541,187,310.22. This represents a 21.03% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,766,118 shares of company stock worth $399,450,353. 3.94% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

More NVIDIA News

These are some of the NVDA news items that stood out recently:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong results from AI cloud provider CoreWeave helped restore confidence in spending on AI infrastructure and lifted sentiment toward NVIDIA and other chipmakers. CoreWeave earnings reignite the AI trade
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley kept its Overweight rating and $300 target, despite removing NVIDIA from its top-pick list, signaling that some analysts still see substantial upside. Analyst ratings and price targets
• Negative Sentiment: A New York Times report alleging Huang had a relationship with an NVIDIA executive who reports to him added to governance concerns. The board is investigating, and reports that Congress may seek answers could prolong uncertainty about leadership and oversight. Nvidia stock slides after report about Jensen Huang

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NVIDIA

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NVDA. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new position in NVIDIA in the 2nd quarter worth about $16,156,076,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of NVIDIA by 34.7% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 75,849,721 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $15,176,771,000 after acquiring an additional 19,522,304 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of NVIDIA during the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,921,459,000. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of NVIDIA by 1.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,009,783,437 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $202,047,568,000 after purchasing an additional 15,897,836 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in shares of NVIDIA by 10.4% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 133,768,018 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $23,329,141,000 after purchasing an additional 12,575,177 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.27% of the company’s stock.

NVIDIA Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 3.85, a current ratio of 4.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company’s 50-day moving average is $217.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $204.42. The company has a market capitalization of $4.19 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.96, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 2.21.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The computer hardware maker reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.13. NVIDIA had a net margin of 63.66% and a return on equity of 96.04%. The business had revenue of $96.22 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $92.27 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.05 earnings per share. NVIDIA’s quarterly revenue was up 105.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that NVIDIA Corporation will post 9.30 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NVIDIA Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, September 10th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 10th. NVIDIA’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.64%.

NVIDIA announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, September 28th that permits the company to buy back $150 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the computer hardware maker to purchase up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

NVIDIA Company Profile

NVIDIA Corporation develops graphics processing units (GPUs), accelerated computing platforms and related software. Founded in 1993, the company first became widely known for GPUs used in PC gaming and professional graphics. Its technology now also supports artificial intelligence, scientific computing and other data-intensive applications. NVIDIA’s offerings include GeForce products for gaming, data-center GPUs and systems for AI workloads, and networking products that connect computing infrastructure.