Stock market today: Nasdaq jumps as Nvidia ignites global rally
02/22/2024 21:59
Stocks powered higher as investors celebrated Nvidia's blowout results, which beat sky-high expectations and revived the AI frenzy.
Stocks rally as Nvidia leads tech higher
Stocks opened higher on Thursday, buoyed by blockbuster earnings from AI darling Nvidia (NVDA).
The tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) shot up about 2% on the heels of the chip maker's results, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) jumped about 1.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose about 0.6%.
Nvidia shares shot up 12% to hit a fresh record high after posting quarterly results which beat analyst expectations.
On Wednesday afternoon the company posted adjusted earnings of $5.16 per share on revenue of $22.1 billion. Analysts were expecting a profit of $4.60 per share on revenue of $20.4 billion.
Nvidia stock has been on a tear amid enthusiasm over artificial intelligence and numerous quarterly prints surpassing expectations.
Shares are up more than 40% since the start of 2024, and roughly 225% higher over the past year.
It’s pretty clear where Wall Street stands on Nvidia
How my Wednesday night of Nvidia analysis ended… seeing this comment on X from my former boss Jim Cramer on one of his favorite all-time stocks Nvidia (we would constantly talk about Nvidia in the TheStreet’s office, this going back to 2018…as seen here):
“oh and if you bet against Nvidia please don't forget to send me an invitation to your funeral....,” Cramer posted.
Jim reminded me this morning via email he named his dog Nvidia in 2017!
I think this upbeat vibe is nicely captured in the actions by sell-side analysts on Nvidia this morning.
Price target raises across the board as Nvidia’s quarter and guidance push the stock closer to the $800 mark. Interesting to see DA Davidson at a $620 price target, which is about 20% below current levels. Conversely, Bernstein’s new $1,000 price target estimates 30% upside for Nvidia’s stock from current levels.
Hat tip to @DeItaone on X for this helpful roundup:
UBS cuts price target to $800 from $850
KeyBanc raises price target to $1,100 from $740
HSBC raises price target to $880 from $835
JPMorgan raises price target to $850 from $650
Stifel raises price target to $910 from $865
Deutsche Bank raises price target to $720 from $560
DA Davidson raises price target to $620 from $410
Cantor Fitzgerald raises price target to $900 from $775
Bernstein raises price target to $1,000 from $700
Wolfe Research raises price target to $900 from $630
Morgan Stanley raises price target to $795 from $750
BofA Securities raises price target to $925 from $800
Truist Securities raises price target to $911 from $691
Goldman Sachs raises price target to $875 from $800
Looking for other stories inside Nvidia
At first glance, the story following Nvidia’s (NVDA) latest eye-popping earnings day is, well, the financials themselves.
To see this kind of growth at Nvidia’s scale is crazy:
Total Sales: +265% vs last year
Data Center: +409% vs last year
Visualization: +105% vs last year
The company’s guidance was equally impressive.
But once the shock and awe wears off, I think you will see the Street dig in on Nvidia and really try to determine how this company is growing in 2025 and 2026. There has been some chatter on the Street this morning that Nvidia may start to see a sharp growth slowdown next year as big tech companies such as Microsoft rein in their AI spending after two heavy years of investment.
To that emerging debate, I offer up this key point from Stifel analyst Ruben Roy.
Roy doesn’t shoot down the notion of Nvidia’s growth miracle cooling next year, but contends they won’t fall off a cliff because of the work the company is doing to diversify its revenue base.
Says Roy:
“As questions regarding the sustainability of Nvidia’s growth increase, we found management commentary on revenue diversification notable. In addition to continued growth of Networking and Software, Nvidia’s overall Data Center revenue is increasingly diversifying across industries and regions, including a growing contribution from demand related to sovereign AI deployments. This diversification, in our view, is likely to continue as AI-related ROI for end users accelerates.
"Nvidia continues to believe that the migration from general purpose compute to accelerated compute represents a $1 trillion opportunity, longer term. As the AI Factory concept materializes, management believes that another $1 trillion opportunity could follow.”
Back to marveling at Nvidia’s numbers … for now.