Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. Has $169.26 Million Stake in NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. increased its stake in shares of NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA) by 13.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,393,776 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 165,937 shares during the quarter. NVIDIA comprises about 3.6% of Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.’s holdings in NVIDIA were worth $169,260,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of NVDA. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of NVIDIA in the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc bought a new stake in shares of NVIDIA in the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. bought a new stake in shares of NVIDIA in the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NVIDIA in the 3rd quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of NVIDIA by 70.0% in the 3rd quarter. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. now owns 340 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 65.27% of the company’s stock.

NVIDIA Stock Down 3.0 %

NASDAQ:NVDA opened at $135.91 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $139.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $128.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.33 trillion, a P/E ratio of 53.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 3.64 and a current ratio of 4.10. NVIDIA Co. has a fifty-two week low of $53.56 and a fifty-two week high of $153.13.

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

NVIDIA Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th were paid a $0.01 dividend. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.03%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 5th. NVIDIA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 1.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Ajay K. Puri sold 36,462 shares of NVIDIA stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.10, for a total value of $5,509,408.20. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,902,888 shares in the company, valued at $589,726,376.80. This trade represents a 0.93 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John Dabiri sold 716 shares of NVIDIA stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was 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 owns 19,942 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,831,764. This trade represents a 3.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,108,348 shares of company stock worth $146,506,958 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 4.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on NVDA. William Blair began coverage on shares of NVIDIA in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $190.00 target price on shares of NVIDIA in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. DA Davidson raised their target price on shares of NVIDIA from $90.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of NVIDIA from $148.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Raymond James raised their price target on shares of NVIDIA from $140.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Four 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $164.63.

NVIDIA Profile

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.