Zacks Research Downgrades NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) to Hold

Key Points

• Zacks Research downgraded NVIDIA (NVDA) from a "strong-buy" to a "hold" in its latest report, signaling a more cautious stance from that firm.
• Most analysts remain bullish overall — MarketBeat shows a consensus of “Moderate Buy” with an average price target of $262.84, and several firms have recently raised targets (e.g., JPMorgan to $250, Tigress to $350).
• Near-term risks include sizable insider selling (about 1.76M shares sold last quarter), export/regulatory uncertainty over H200 chip shipments to China, and high‑profile short bets that could increase volatility and downside risk.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA - Get Free Report) was downgraded by Zacks Research from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on NVDA. DZ Bank reissued a "buy" rating on shares of NVIDIA in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Daiwa Capital Markets increased their price objective on NVIDIA from $165.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of NVIDIA from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of NVIDIA in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, Tigress Financial restated a "strong-buy" rating and set a $350.00 price target (up previously from $280.00) on shares of NVIDIA in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-six have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $262.84.

NVIDIA Price Performance

NVDA stock opened at $185.81 on Monday. NVIDIA has a 52-week low of $86.62 and a 52-week high of $212.19. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $184.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $180.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.52 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 2.31. The company has a quick ratio of 3.71, a current ratio of 4.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 19th. The computer hardware maker reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.23 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $57.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $54.66 billion. NVIDIA had a net margin of 53.01% and a return on equity of 99.24%. NVIDIA's revenue was up 62.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.81 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that NVIDIA will post 2.77 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Ajay K. Puri sold 200,000 shares of NVIDIA stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.82, for a total transaction of $37,564,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 3,818,547 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $717,199,497.54. This trade represents a 4.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Mark A. Stevens sold 350,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.73, for a total transaction of $63,605,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,049,803 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,281,160,699.19. The trade was a 4.73% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 1,761,474 shares of company stock worth $321,897,742. Corporate insiders own 4.17% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NVIDIA

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NVDA. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its position in NVIDIA by 267,959.7% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 382,373,765 shares of the computer hardware maker's stock worth $64,976,521,000 after buying an additional 382,231,120 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of NVIDIA during the 2nd quarter valued at $51,386,863,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in NVIDIA by 16.1% in the third quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 165,377,852 shares of the computer hardware maker's stock valued at $30,855,564,000 after buying an additional 22,896,705 shares during the period. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in NVIDIA by 15,496.1% during the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 21,865,525 shares of the computer hardware maker's stock worth $3,454,534,000 after acquiring an additional 21,725,326 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Danske Bank A S bought a new position in shares of NVIDIA during the third quarter worth $3,180,313,000. 65.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key NVIDIA News

Here are the key news stories impacting NVIDIA this week:

• Positive Sentiment: NVIDIA’s partnership with Eli Lilly — a co‑innovation AI lab with up to $1 billion of combined investment and access to Vera Rubin-class compute — strengthens NVDA’s addressable market in life sciences and signals new, high‑margin data‑center demand. Nvidia, Eli Lilly to spend $1 billion over five years on joint research lab
• Positive Sentiment: U.S. regulators have approved shipments of the H200 AI chip to China with conditions — a near‑term reopening of a major revenue channel if export licenses proceed, reducing some geopolitical downside risk. U.S. formally clears Nvidia H200 AI chip exports to China
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains broadly bullish with multiple buy/outperform ratings and high price targets (median ~ $250, several at $275+), which supports investor confidence and can prop up the share price. Here’s What Wall Street Thinks About NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA)
• Neutral Sentiment: NVIDIA’s BioNeMo platform expansion and new ecosystem partnerships (Thermo Fisher, NEAR AI, etc.) broaden potential end markets (drug discovery, autonomous labs), but commercialization timelines and monetization remain multi‑year. NVIDIA BioNeMo Platform Adopted by Life‑Sciences Leaders
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are focused on upcoming fiscal Q4 results (earnings date set for Feb. 25) and modelled AI revenue expectations — short‑term moves may be driven more by guidance and China clarity than by product announcements. AI predicts Nvidia stock price after Q4 earnings report
• Negative Sentiment: Chinese customs reportedly told agents H200 chips are not permitted into China — a direct counterweight to the U.S. approval and a material near‑term sales risk if Beijing blocks imports or imposes restrictive approvals. Exclusive: China's customs agents told Nvidia's H200 chips are not permitted
• Negative Sentiment: High‑profile short bets (Michael Burry publicly shorting NVDA) and growing commentary about stretched valuations increase downside risk in a market rotation away from large-cap AI names. These narrative risks can amplify volatility even absent fundamental changes. Michael Burry explains why he's betting against Nvidia
• Negative Sentiment: Macro rotation toward value and interest‑rate uncertainty make high‑duration growth stocks like NVDA more sensitive to sentiment shifts; a negative market tide could pressure the stock despite company‑level wins. Tech Wreck or Valuation Reset? Rotating to Value in 2026

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA Corporation, founded in 1993 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is a global technology company that designs and develops graphics processing units (GPUs) and system-on-chip (SoC) technologies. Co-founded by Jensen Huang, who serves as president and chief executive officer, along with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, NVIDIA has grown from a graphics-focused chipmaker into a broad provider of accelerated computing hardware and software for multiple industries.

The company's product portfolio spans discrete GPUs for gaming and professional visualization (marketed under the GeForce and NVIDIA RTX lines), high-performance data center accelerators used for AI training and inference (including widely adopted platforms such as the A100 and H100 series), and Tegra SoCs for automotive and edge applications.

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