NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA) Stock Position Trimmed by Covington Investment Advisors Inc.

Covington Investment Advisors Inc. decreased its position in NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA) by 0.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 176,895 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock after selling 1,310 shares during the period. NVIDIA accounts for about 3.2% of Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in NVIDIA were worth $21,482,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc purchased a new stake in shares of NVIDIA during the third quarter valued at $27,000. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in NVIDIA in the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. purchased a new stake in shares of NVIDIA during the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of NVIDIA during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. boosted its stake in NVIDIA by 70.0% during the third quarter. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. now owns 340 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. 65.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NVIDIA Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NVDA opened at $135.91 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 4.10, a quick ratio of 3.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $139.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $128.68. NVIDIA Co. has a twelve month low of $53.56 and a twelve month high of $153.13. The company has a market capitalization of $3.33 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.64.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The computer hardware maker reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.12. NVIDIA had a return on equity of 114.83% and a net margin of 55.69%. The firm had revenue of $35.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.15 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.38 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 93.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that NVIDIA Co. will post 2.78 earnings per share for the current year.

NVIDIA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th were paid a $0.01 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.03%. NVIDIA’s payout ratio is 1.57%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Ajay K. Puri sold 36,462 shares of NVIDIA stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.10, for a total transaction of $5,509,408.20. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,902,888 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $589,726,376.80. The trade was a 0.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director John Dabiri sold 716 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.00, for a total transaction of $101,672.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 19,942 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,831,764. The trade was a 3.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,108,348 shares of company stock valued at $146,506,958. Company insiders own 4.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of NVIDIA from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of NVIDIA in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Melius Research boosted their price target on NVIDIA from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on NVIDIA from $140.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, HSBC boosted their target price on shares of NVIDIA from $145.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, NVIDIA currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $164.63.

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.