Wall Street isn’t tempering Nvidia’s expectations as second-quarter results near. The company emerged as the number one AI stock after reporting exceptional first-quarter results that also saw the stock surge to $1 trillion in market capitalization. Now, Nvidia is up 196% this year. NVDA YTD Mountain NVDA Rise in 2023 Before earnings come out on Wednesday, analysts ponder the upcoming report and how to trade the earnings. Hans Mossmann, an analyst at Rosenblatt Securities, raised his price target last week to $800 per share, implying an 84% upside over the next 12 months. He added that he expects a higher and final win in the second quarter. “NVDA remains one of our best plays as the company stands in a league of its own when it comes to software and AI solutions. With unrivaled strengths in compilers, libraries, and vertical optimization,” Mosesmann said. “NVDA’s competitive moat and growth prospects are not fully reflected at current levels.” Rick Schafer Oppenheimer maintained Nvidia’s outperform rating and raised its price target to $500 per share from $420. “Nvidia has transformed from a graphics company to a leading computing platform company leading the way in artificial intelligence,” said Schafer. “We see several structural tailwinds driving significant sustainable growth in high-performance gaming, data center/AI, and autonomous vehicles.” Wolfe Research analyst Chris Caso began covering Nvidia stock in a July 19th note with an outperform rating along with a $570 share price target. The key question is whether there is still room for the stock to move further, given the significant move and high valuation – we think there is given NVDA’s FCF strength. [free cash flow]Caso said. We believe it is unprecedented for a company to grow so quickly (30% 8 year CAGR [compounded annual growth rate], 35% 3yr CAGR), and we’re still throwing away that much cash (~2.2% CHF yield even after >200% YTD equity gain). Elsewhere, Citi analyst Atif Malik reiterated the Buy rating and $520 share price target in a note last week. The analyst said he expects $11 billion in revenue versus $11.14 billion on Wall Street. “We’re designing ~11 billion $/$12B or concurrent sales in July/October and we believe the buy-side outlook has increased or ~$12B/$14B since the last earnings report,” Malik said. However, Deutsche Bank analyst Ross Seymour is more cautious about Nvidia’s stock heading to earnings, reiterating the comment’s rating in a note Tuesday. Almost 2% up from the stock’s current trading levels. However, Seymour noted that the risk is still tilted to the upside. ” [long-term] The thesis would be the magnitude/tilt of future growth (with this almost unrestrained upside strongly deterring bears), but also the cyclical risk should demand not be sustained in the near term,” Seymour said. — CNBC’s Michael Blum contributed to this report.
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