Artificial-intelligence chip leader Nvidia late Wednesday beat Wall Street's targets for its fiscal fourth quarter and guided higher than views for the current period. Nvidia stock rose in extended trading.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company earned an adjusted $5.16 a share on sales of $22.1 billion in the quarter ended Jan. 28. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of $4.59 a share on sales of $20.4 billion. On a year-over-year basis, Nvidia earnings rocketed 486% while sales surged 265%.
The company's data center sales jumped 409% to $18.4 billion as enterprises snapped up graphics processors to run AI applications.
Nvidia's Q4 report marked its third straight quarter of triple-digit percentage growth in sales and earnings. And its sales growth has accelerated for the past three quarters.
Nvidia Stock Climbs Higher
For the current quarter, Nvidia expects to generate sales of $24 billion, vs. analysts consensus expectation for $22.2 billion. In the year-earlier quarter, Nvidia posted sales of $7.19 billion.
In after-hours trading on the stock market today, Nvidia stock advanced more than 8% to 731.40. During the regular session Wednesday, Nvidia stock dropped 2.9% to close at 674.72.
"Accelerated computing and generative AI have hit the tipping point," Chief Executive Jensen Huang said in a news release. "Demand is surging worldwide across companies, industries and nations."
Nvidia is seeing demand not just from large cloud-service providers, but enterprise software and consumer internet companies, he said.
"Vertical industries — led by auto, financial services and healthcare — are now at a multibillion-dollar level," Huang said.
Nvidia Is On 5 IBD Stock Lists
Nvidia has been the poster child for the AI stock rally over the past year. It is one of the Magnificent Seven stocks. Through Wednesday's regular-session close, Nvidia stock is up 36% year to date.
Also, Nvidia stock is on five IBD Lists: IBD 50, Leaderboard, Big Cap 20, Sector Leaders and Tech Leaders.
Follow Patrick Seitz on X, formerly Twitter, at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories on consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.
