Principal Financial Group Inc. Purchases 30,758,341 Shares of NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA) by 858.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,341,377 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 30,758,341 shares during the quarter. NVIDIA accounts for approximately 2.5% of Principal Financial Group Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.14% of NVIDIA worth $4,242,534,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of NVIDIA by 4.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 213,335,626 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $192,761,538,000 after buying an additional 8,828,050 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in NVIDIA by 854.1% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 182,622,629 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $22,561,200,000 after acquiring an additional 163,482,580 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its stake in shares of NVIDIA by 696.6% in the 2nd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 82,058,614 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $10,137,521,000 after acquiring an additional 71,757,065 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NVIDIA by 829.0% in the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 64,055,653 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $7,913,435,000 after purchasing an additional 57,160,191 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB lifted its position in shares of NVIDIA by 798.8% during the second quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 39,020,364 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $4,820,576,000 after purchasing an additional 34,678,944 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.27% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on NVDA. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on shares of NVIDIA from $98.50 to $170.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. William Blair started coverage on NVIDIA in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of NVIDIA in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Loop Capital reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $175.00 price target on shares of NVIDIA in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of NVIDIA from $145.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $142.10.

Insider Activity at NVIDIA

In other NVIDIA news, CEO Jen Hsun Huang sold 120,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.04, for a total value of $15,004,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 80,094,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,015,078,174.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other NVIDIA news, Director Tench Coxe sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.27, for a total transaction of $119,270,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 5,852,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $698,025,289.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Jen Hsun Huang sold 120,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.04, for a total transaction of $15,004,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 80,094,995 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,015,078,174.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 4,472,303 shares of company stock valued at $536,731,507. Corporate insiders own 4.23% of the company’s stock.

NVIDIA Stock Up 0.2 %

NVDA stock opened at $116.26 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $115.75 and its 200 day moving average is $107.41. The stock has a market cap of $2.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a current ratio of 4.27, a quick ratio of 3.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. NVIDIA Co. has a 1-year low of $39.23 and a 1-year high of $140.76.

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

NVIDIA Cuts Dividend

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

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

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.