Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) Stock Price

Key Points

• Morgan Stanley has raised NVIDIA's price target from $170 to $200, indicating a potential upside of 13.95% from its current price.
• Several analysts have upgraded their price targets to $200, with 33 analysts issuing a "buy" rating and only one analyst rating it as a "sell."
• Insider transactions saw a significant amount of shares sold, including 48,792 shares by Director A Brooke Seawell and 75,000 shares by CEO Jen Hsun Huang.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA - Free Report) had its target price raised by Morgan Stanley from $170.00 to $200.00 in a report released on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the computer hardware maker's stock.

NVDA has been the subject of several other reports. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of NVIDIA in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $190.00 price objective on shares of NVIDIA in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Barclays boosted their price objective on NVIDIA from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on NVIDIA in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $185.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on NVIDIA from $180.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-three have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NVIDIA currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $182.03.

NVIDIA Trading Down 2.3%

NASDAQ NVDA traded down $4.15 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $173.72. 203,669,565 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 153,436,048. The firm has a market cap of $4.24 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 2.14. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $155.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $132.32. The company has a quick ratio of 2.96, a current ratio of 3.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. NVIDIA has a fifty-two week low of $86.62 and a fifty-two week high of $183.30.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 28th. The computer hardware maker reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.06). NVIDIA had a net margin of 51.69% and a return on equity of 105.09%. The firm had revenue of $44.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $43.09 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.61 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 69.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that NVIDIA will post 2.77 EPS for the current year.

NVIDIA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 11th were given a dividend of $0.01 per share. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.0%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 11th. NVIDIA's dividend payout ratio is currently 1.29%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NVIDIA news, CEO Jen Hsun Huang sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.74, for a total value of $13,405,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 73,748,225 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,181,757,736.50. This trade represents a 0.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Colette Kress sold 27,650 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.89, for a total value of $4,725,108.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 2,984,516 shares of the company's stock, valued at $510,023,939.24. This represents a 0.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,339,800 shares of company stock worth $800,141,003 in the last ninety days. 4.17% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NVIDIA

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. raised its position in shares of NVIDIA by 0.9% during the first quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 93,568 shares of the computer hardware maker's stock worth $9,610,000 after acquiring an additional 864 shares during the last quarter. Centerpoint Advisory Group increased its holdings in NVIDIA by 2.5% in the first quarter. Centerpoint Advisory Group now owns 39,398 shares of the computer hardware maker's stock worth $4,270,000 after purchasing an additional 943 shares in the last quarter. GSB Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in NVIDIA by 3.3% in the first quarter. GSB Wealth Management LLC now owns 32,611 shares of the computer hardware maker's stock worth $3,534,000 after purchasing an additional 1,043 shares in the last quarter. Variant Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in NVIDIA by 20.6% in the first quarter. Variant Private Wealth LLC now owns 18,800 shares of the computer hardware maker's stock worth $2,038,000 after purchasing an additional 3,206 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Perspectives Inc increased its holdings in NVIDIA by 2.8% in the first quarter. Financial Perspectives Inc now owns 45,958 shares of the computer hardware maker's stock worth $4,981,000 after purchasing an additional 1,265 shares in the last quarter. 65.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.