Essex LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Essex LLC grew its position in NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA) by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 36,481 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock after buying an additional 187 shares during the quarter. NVIDIA makes up about 0.9% of Essex LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest holding. Essex LLC’s holdings in NVIDIA were worth $4,430,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of NVIDIA by 52.2% in the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 38,290 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $34,597,000 after purchasing an additional 13,135 shares in the last quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc. grew its holdings in NVIDIA by 9.4% in the 1st quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc. now owns 3,468 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $3,134,000 after buying an additional 298 shares in the last quarter. TBH Global Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of NVIDIA by 23.0% in the 1st quarter. TBH Global Asset Management LLC now owns 1,114 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $1,007,000 after acquiring an additional 208 shares during the last quarter. Planning Directions Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NVIDIA by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. Planning Directions Inc. now owns 935 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $844,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Finally, Ledyard National Bank boosted its position in shares of NVIDIA by 14.5% during the 1st quarter. Ledyard National Bank now owns 2,323 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $2,099,000 after acquiring an additional 295 shares during the last quarter. 65.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on NVDA shares. New Street Research raised shares of NVIDIA from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Raymond James upped their price objective on NVIDIA from $140.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on NVIDIA from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $175.00 price target on shares of NVIDIA in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of NVIDIA in a report on Monday, November 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NVIDIA currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $164.15.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Jen Hsun Huang sold 120,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.03, for a total value of $14,283,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 76,494,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,105,199,254.85. This trade represents a 0.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Donald F. Robertson, Jr. sold 4,500 shares of NVIDIA stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.51, for a total value of $524,295.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 492,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $57,370,572.59. This represents a 0.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 2,156,270 shares of company stock worth $254,784,327. 4.23% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NVIDIA Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NVDA opened at $136.92 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 4.10 and a quick ratio of 3.64. The firm has a market cap of $3.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.66. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $134.82 and its 200 day moving average price is $123.17. NVIDIA Co. has a 1-year low of $45.01 and a 1-year high of $152.89.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The computer hardware maker reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.12. NVIDIA had a net margin of 55.69% and a return on equity of 114.83%. The business had revenue of $35.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.38 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 93.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NVIDIA Co. will post 2.73 EPS for the current year.

NVIDIA Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 dividend of $0.01 per share. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. NVIDIA’s dividend payout ratio is presently 1.57%.

NVIDIA announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, August 28th that allows the company to repurchase $50.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the computer hardware maker to repurchase up to 1.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.