NVIDIA Earnings Push Shares to All-Time High

November 10, 2017 by Chris Lange

NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) released its fiscal third-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Thursday. While the tech sector has rallied, NVIDIA has been at the forefront, leading the way. And it seems that the firm has done it again with a spectacular earnings report. Although the initial response was somewhat muted, NVIDIA rallied in Friday’s session to hit new all-time highs.

This tech leader said that it had $1.33 in earnings per share (EPS) on $2.64 billion in revenue, compared to the consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters that called for $0.94 in EPS and revenue of $2.36 billion. In the same period of last year, NVIDIA reported EPS of $0.83 and $2.0 billion in revenue.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, revenue is anticipated to be $2.65 billion, give or take 2%, with a gross margin of 60.0% and operating expenses of $600 million. The consensus estimates are $0.97 in EPS and $2.43 billion in revenue for the quarter.

Perhaps one of the biggest highlights for this quarter was the announcement of NVIDIA Drive PX Pegasus, the world’s first auto-grade AI computer designed to enable a new class of driverless robotaxis without steering wheels, pedals or mirrors.

Apart from the tech, the company intends to return $1.25 billion to shareholders through ongoing quarterly cash dividends and share repurchases in the coming fiscal year. Kicking this off, NVIDIA announced a 7% increase in its quarterly cash dividend to $0.15 per share from $0.14 per share, to be paid with its next quarterly cash dividend on December 15, to all shareholders of record on November 24.

Jensen Huang, founder and CEO, said in the report:

We had a great quarter across all of our growth drivers. Industries across the world are accelerating their adoption of AI.

Our Volta GPU has been embraced by every major internet and cloud service provider and computer maker. Our new TensorRT inference acceleration platform opens us to growth in hyperscale datacenters. GeForce and Nintendo Switch are tapped into the strongest growth dynamics of gaming. And our new DRIVE PX Pegasus for robotaxis has been adopted by companies around the world. We are well positioned for continued growth.

Shares of NVIDIA were last seen up almost 6% to $217.33, with a consensus analyst price target of $169.55 and a new 52-week range of $78.50 to $217.75.

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