Willis Investment Counsel Increases Stock Holdings in NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Willis Investment Counsel increased its holdings in NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA) by 19.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 148,192 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 24,282 shares during the quarter. Willis Investment Counsel’s holdings in NVIDIA were worth $17,996,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of NVIDIA by 52.2% in the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 38,290 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $34,597,000 after buying an additional 13,135 shares during the last quarter. Pegasus Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of NVIDIA by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Pegasus Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,872 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $7,113,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. RiverFront Investment Group LLC increased its stake in shares of NVIDIA by 27.0% in the first quarter. RiverFront Investment Group LLC now owns 517 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $467,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC grew its stake in shares of NVIDIA by 154.1% in the 1st quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 188 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $170,000 after buying an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smart Money Group LLC increased its position in NVIDIA by 13.1% during the first quarter. Smart Money Group LLC now owns 1,462 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $1,263,000 after buying an additional 169 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.27% of the company’s stock.

NVIDIA Stock Down 3.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ NVDA opened at $141.98 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $130.97 and its 200 day moving average is $120.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 66.66, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 3.79 and a current ratio of 4.27. NVIDIA Co. has a 52 week low of $45.01 and a 52 week high of $149.77.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last issued 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. NVIDIA had a net margin of 55.04% and a return on equity of 113.50%. The business had revenue of $30.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $28.74 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.25 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 122.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that NVIDIA Co. will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NVIDIA declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, August 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $50.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the computer hardware maker to repurchase up to 1.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

NVIDIA Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 12th were given a $0.01 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 12th. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.03%. NVIDIA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 1.88%.

Insider Transactions at NVIDIA

In related news, insider Donald F. Robertson, Jr. sold 4,500 shares of NVIDIA stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.51, for a total value of $524,295.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 492,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $57,370,572.59. This trade represents a 0.91 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Mark A. Stevens sold 40,000 shares of NVIDIA stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $121.01, for a total value of $4,840,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 8,380,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,014,077,958.17. This trade represents a 0.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,156,270 shares of company stock valued at $254,784,327. Corporate insiders own 4.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on NVDA shares. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on NVIDIA from $120.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of NVIDIA from $145.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. New Street Research upgraded shares of NVIDIA from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of NVIDIA in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded NVIDIA to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $152.40.

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.