Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. Increases Stake in NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. raised its holdings in shares of NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA) by 947.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,227,839 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,110,568 shares during the quarter. NVIDIA accounts for about 3.2% of Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.’s holdings in NVIDIA were worth $146,003,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of NVDA. Sowa Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of NVIDIA in the 2nd quarter valued at about $5,929,000. Your Advocates Ltd. LLP lifted its stake in shares of NVIDIA by 1,214.3% in the 2nd quarter. Your Advocates Ltd. LLP now owns 920 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $114,000 after purchasing an additional 850 shares during the last quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NVIDIA by 1,085.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 233,096 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $28,797,000 after purchasing an additional 213,425 shares during the period. Riggs Asset Managment Co. Inc. increased its position in shares of NVIDIA by 641.6% during the 2nd quarter. Riggs Asset Managment Co. Inc. now owns 95,555 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $11,805,000 after purchasing an additional 82,670 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC raised its holdings in NVIDIA by 970.6% during the 2nd quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC now owns 7,580 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $936,000 after buying an additional 6,872 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 65.27% of the company’s stock.

NVIDIA Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NVDA opened at $116.00 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $115.99 and its 200 day moving average is $107.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 4.27 and a quick ratio of 3.79. NVIDIA Co. has a 1 year low of $39.23 and a 1 year high of $140.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.85 trillion, a P/E ratio of 67.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.67.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer hardware maker reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $30.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $28.74 billion. NVIDIA had a net margin of 55.04% and a return on equity of 113.50%. NVIDIA’s revenue was up 122.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.25 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that NVIDIA Co. will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NVIDIA announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, August 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $50.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the computer hardware maker to reacquire up to 1.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

NVIDIA Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.01 per share. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 12th. NVIDIA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.34%.

Insider Activity at NVIDIA

In other NVIDIA news, CEO Jen Hsun Huang sold 120,000 shares of NVIDIA stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.10, for a total transaction of $16,092,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 79,254,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,628,094,829.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other NVIDIA news, CEO Jen Hsun Huang sold 120,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.10, for a total transaction of $16,092,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 79,254,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,628,094,829.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Ajay K. Puri sold 100,110 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.10, for a total transaction of $13,024,311.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,939,350 shares in the company, valued at $512,509,435. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,472,303 shares of company stock valued at $417,461,507 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 4.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NVDA has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. New Street Research raised shares of NVIDIA from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. StockNews.com lowered shares of NVIDIA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. UBS Group boosted their target price on NVIDIA from $120.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on NVIDIA from $120.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of NVIDIA in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, NVIDIA currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $142.10.

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.