NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) Shares Down 1.1% – Should You Sell?

NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares fell 1.1% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $142.73 and last traded at $145.45. 86,532,042 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 396,593,906 shares. The stock had previously closed at $147.01.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on NVDA. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of NVIDIA from $150.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of NVIDIA from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Mizuho upped their price objective on NVIDIA from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Raymond James lifted their target price on NVIDIA from $140.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of NVIDIA in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $154.63.

NVIDIA Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day moving average is $132.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $121.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 4.27 and a quick ratio of 3.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.54 trillion, a PE ratio of 68.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.66.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer hardware maker reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $30.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $28.74 billion. NVIDIA had a net margin of 55.04% and a return on equity of 113.50%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 122.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.25 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that NVIDIA Co. will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NVIDIA Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 12th were issued a dividend of $0.01 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 12th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.03%. NVIDIA’s payout ratio is currently 1.88%.

NVIDIA announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, August 28th that permits the company to buyback $50.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the computer hardware maker to reacquire up to 1.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Colette Kress sold 66,670 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.59, for a total value of $7,773,055.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 4,954,214 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $577,611,810.26. This trade represents a 1.33 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Jen Hsun Huang sold 120,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.33, for a total transaction of $12,639,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 75,895,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,994,108,405.88. This trade represents a 0.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,156,270 shares of company stock worth $254,784,327 over the last three months. 4.23% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of NVIDIA by 884.0% during 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 period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in NVIDIA by 854.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 182,622,629 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $22,561,200,000 after buying an additional 163,482,580 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of NVIDIA by 870.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 91,867,031 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 84,515,429 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in NVIDIA by 808.6% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 82,689,605 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $10,215,474,000 after acquiring an additional 73,589,208 shares during the period. 65.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NVIDIA Company Profile

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.