NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) Shares Up 0.4% - Still a Buy?

NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA - Get Free Report) shares were up 0.4% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $141.90 and last traded at $140.22. Approximately 105,156,984 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 72% from the average daily volume of 380,986,563 shares. The stock had previously closed at $139.67.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NVDA has been the topic of a number of research reports. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of NVIDIA from $150.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of NVIDIA in a research note on Monday, November 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on NVIDIA from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $175.00 price target on shares of NVIDIA in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, HSBC upped their price objective on NVIDIA from $145.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $164.15.

NVIDIA Stock Performance

The firm's 50 day moving average price is $139.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $127.62. The firm has a market cap of $3.43 trillion, a PE ratio of 55.18, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 3.64 and a current ratio of 4.10.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The computer hardware maker reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.12. NVIDIA had a return on equity of 114.83% and a net margin of 55.69%. The company had revenue of $35.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.38 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 93.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that NVIDIA Co. will post 2.78 earnings per share for the current year.

NVIDIA Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a $0.01 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.03%. NVIDIA's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 1.57%.

NVIDIA declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, August 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $50.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the computer hardware maker to reacquire up to 1.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at NVIDIA

In other NVIDIA news, Director Tench Coxe sold 1,000,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.26, for a total transaction of $131,260,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 28,671,360 shares in the company, valued at $3,763,402,713.60. This represents a 3.37 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Colette Kress sold 66,670 shares of NVIDIA stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.40, for a total value of $9,027,118.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 3,351,572 shares of the company's stock, valued at $453,802,848.80. The trade was a 1.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,391,886 shares of company stock worth $181,666,050 over the last three months. Insiders own 4.23% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in NVIDIA by 884.0% in the second 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 acquiring an additional 191,469,114 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of NVIDIA by 854.1% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 182,622,629 shares of the computer hardware maker's stock worth $22,561,200,000 after purchasing an additional 163,482,580 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NVIDIA by 870.3% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 102,422,225 shares of the computer hardware maker's stock valued at $12,658,922,000 after acquiring an additional 91,867,031 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in NVIDIA by 1,123.2% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 92,039,713 shares of the computer hardware maker's stock valued at $11,371,255,000 after purchasing an additional 84,515,429 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in NVIDIA by 808.6% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 82,689,605 shares of the computer hardware maker's stock worth $10,215,474,000 after purchasing an additional 73,589,208 shares during the period. 65.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.