Piper Sandler Upgrades NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) to Strong-Buy

Key Points

• Piper Sandler upgraded NVIDIA to “Strong Buy,” adding to an overwhelmingly bullish analyst consensus: 50 analysts rate the stock Buy and two rate it Hold, with an average price target of $324.34.
• NVIDIA reported quarterly earnings of $2.22 per share and revenue of $96.22 billion, beating estimates, while revenue surged 105.9% year over year. The company also authorized an $80 billion stock buyback.
• Despite strong institutional ownership and business momentum, insider selling and regulatory concerns remain risks; insiders sold more than $571 million in shares during the last quarter, and the DOJ is reportedly examining NVIDIA’s licensing arrangement with Groq.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA - Get Free Report) was upgraded by equities researchers at Piper Sandler to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note issued on Wednesday, Zacks reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Citigroup reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $315.00 price target (up from $300.00) on shares of NVIDIA in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Citic Securities raised their price target on shares of NVIDIA from $242.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus set a $315.00 price objective on shares of NVIDIA in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their price objective on shares of NVIDIA from $300.00 to $325.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, Susquehanna reiterated a "positive" rating and set a $275.00 target price (up from $250.00) on shares of NVIDIA in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $324.34.

NVIDIA Price Performance

NVDA opened at $218.36 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 4.59 and a quick ratio of 3.85. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $212.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $203.23. The firm has a market cap of $5.26 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.61, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 2.22. NVIDIA has a 1 year low of $164.27 and a 1 year high of $236.54.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The computer hardware maker reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.09 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $96.22 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $92.27 billion. NVIDIA had a return on equity of 96.04% and a net margin of 63.66%.The business's revenue was up 105.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.05 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that NVIDIA will post 9.1 earnings per share for the current year.

NVIDIA announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, May 20th that authorizes the company to repurchase $80.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the computer hardware maker to purchase up to 1.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Mark Stevens sold 885,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.17, for a total value of $186,000,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,207,271 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,094,412,146.07. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Timothy Teter sold 30,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.88, for a total transaction of $6,536,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 2,687,660 shares of the company's stock, valued at $585,587,360.80. This trade represents a 1.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 2,585,740 shares of company stock worth $571,015,527 in the last quarter. 3.94% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NVIDIA

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NVDA. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in NVIDIA by 12.4% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 324,901 shares of the computer hardware maker's stock valued at $43,631,000 after buying an additional 35,815 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG boosted its holdings in NVIDIA by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 2,346,417 shares of the computer hardware maker's stock worth $315,100,000 after acquiring an additional 22,929 shares in the last quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE grew its stake in shares of NVIDIA by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 58,396 shares of the computer hardware maker's stock worth $7,842,000 after acquiring an additional 3,653 shares during the last quarter. Hudson Value Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of NVIDIA by 30.7% during the fourth quarter. Hudson Value Partners LLC now owns 50,658 shares of the computer hardware maker's stock valued at $6,805,000 after acquiring an additional 11,900 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Group Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of NVIDIA by 15.7% during the first quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. now owns 6,598 shares of the computer hardware maker's stock valued at $715,000 after acquiring an additional 896 shares in the last quarter. 65.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting NVIDIA

Here are the key news stories impacting NVIDIA this week:

• Positive Sentiment: NVIDIA’s AI growth outlook remains exceptionally strong. CEO Jensen Huang said revenue could grow roughly 70% next year, while the company’s next-generation Rubin platform is already shipping. Recent quarterly revenue reached $96.2 billion, up about 106% year over year, exceeding estimates and reinforcing expectations for continued data-center demand. Nvidia Has $96 Billion in Quarterly Revenue
• Positive Sentiment: Microsoft reportedly plans to more than triple its data-center capacity, a potentially significant demand catalyst for NVIDIA’s GPUs, networking products and full-stack systems. Strong August revenue growth at manufacturing partner TSMC also signals that AI-chip orders remain robust. Microsoft Data Center Expansion
• Positive Sentiment: NVIDIA is expanding its ecosystem through a planned Australian AI-infrastructure buildout of up to 2 gigawatts by 2027, partnerships with Palantir for sovereign supply-chain AI, and adoption of its chip-linking technology by d-Matrix. These initiatives broaden demand beyond traditional hyperscalers. Australian AI Infrastructure Expansion
• Neutral Sentiment: Competition and valuation remain investor concerns. Positron AI raised $875 million to develop memory-based inference technology that could challenge NVIDIA’s software and hardware advantage, while AMD and Broadcom are being promoted as alternative AI investments. High Treasury yields also make NVIDIA’s elevated valuation more difficult to justify.
• Negative Sentiment: The Justice Department is reportedly investigating whether NVIDIA’s licensing arrangement with AI-chip startup Groq was structured to avoid antitrust scrutiny. Any regulatory action could limit strategic flexibility or increase legal uncertainty. DOJ Groq Licensing Investigation
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling is weighing on sentiment: director Mark Stevens reportedly sold hundreds of thousands of shares, and broader recent filings show substantial insider sales with no reported purchases. The transactions do not prove weakening fundamentals, but they can encourage profit-taking after the stock’s strong rally.
• Negative Sentiment: Higher oil prices, rising bond yields and a hotter inflation reading have pressured technology stocks broadly. These macro forces, combined with concerns about AI-capital-spending sustainability and fresh regulatory scrutiny, help explain why NVIDIA has decreased despite strong company-specific news.

NVIDIA Company Profile

NVIDIA Corporation is a technology company that designs accelerated computing platforms, graphics processors and related software. Its products are used for artificial intelligence, machine learning, high-performance computing, computer graphics, data-center applications and other workloads that benefit from parallel processing.

The company's offerings include GeForce graphics processing units (GPUs) and software for gaming and personal computers; data-center GPUs, systems and networking products; and professional visualization solutions for design, engineering, media and scientific applications.

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