Nvidia late Wednesday beat Wall Street's targets for its fiscal fourth quarter and guided above views for the current period. Nvidia stock rebounded after sliding in late trades. But the shares faded again, last down a fraction after the earnings call ended.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company earned an adjusted 89 cents a share on sales of $39.33 billion in the quarter ended Jan. 26. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of 85 cents a share on sales of $38.1 billion. In the year-earlier period, Nvidia earned an adjusted 52 cents a share on sales of $22.1 billion.
Nvidia's fiscal Q4 was the first to include sales of the company's next-generation AI processor, called Blackwell.
For the current quarter, Nvidia forecast revenue of $43 billion, vs. expectations for $42.07 billion. In the same quarter last year, Nvidia posted sales of $26.04 billion.
In after-hours trading on the stock market today, Nvidia stock alternated between modest gains and losses. During recent trades, it was down 1% to 129.94. During the regular session Wednesday, Nvidia stock rose 3.7% to close at 131.28.
Nvidia stock had fallen in the previous three trading sessions as investors considered multiple perceived risks.
Nvidia Stock In Consolidation Pattern
IBD MarketSurge charts show that Nvidia stock is in a consolidation pattern with a buy point of 153.13. However, it is in the lower half of its base.
Also, in a negative sign, Nvidia stock was trading below its 50-day moving average line, a key support level. However, it had found support at its 200-day moving average.
Nvidia stock has moved sideways for several months amid a host of concerns. They include worries that Nvidia's hyperscale cloud customers might slow spending on data centers or rethink their costly capex plans. Nvidia also faces competition from its own customers developing custom AI chips with Broadcom and Marvell Technology. Plus, Nvidia faces the prospect of increased U.S. export controls on the chips it can sell to China. Also, Nvidia's Blackwell chips are said to have encountered production issues that could slow their ramp.
Nvidia stock is on the IBD Tech Leaders list.
6:24 p.m. ET
Nvidia Stock Slides Again As Call Ends
AI is moving beyond perception and generative AI to reasoning and that's going to require many times more computer processors, CEO Jensen Huang said.
The AI revolution is just getting started as artificial intelligence shifts to agentic AI and physical AI, he said.
The earnings call has ended. Nvidia shares faded again in late trades. The stock was last down a fraction.
5:45 p.m. ET
Blackwell Ultra, Rubin Up Next
On the conference call, Chief Executive Jensen Huang said Nvidia remains on an annual rhythm for new product releases.
The follow-up to Blackwell, known as Blackwell Ultra, is on track to launch later this year, he said. Huang said he will discuss the upcoming Blackwell Ultra, its successor called Rubin, and "one click after Rubin" in a keynote at the company's GTC conference in March.
5:40 p.m. ET
Blackwell Weighing On Margins
Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said Nvidia's adjusted gross margin is expected to be 71% in the current quarter. And it will be in the "low 70s" as Nvidia ramps Blackwell production.
"We expect a significant ramp of Blackwell in the first quarter," she said.
Nvidia's gross margins should return to the mid-70s later in the current fiscal year, she said.
Nvidia stock still up 1.8%.
5: 21 p.m. ET
Blackwell Exceeds Targets
"In Q4, Blackwell sales exceeded our expectations," CFO Colette Kress said on a conference call with analysts.
Customers "are racing to scale their infrastructure" for AI computing applications, she said. Demand for high-performance processors is increasing along with new AI applications with enhanced capabilities.
Nvidia up nearly 2%.
5:06 p.m. ET
Nvidia's Gross Margin Declines
Nvidia garnered $11 billion of Blackwell architecture revenue in the fourth quarter, Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said in prepared remarks. Blackwell was "the fastest product ramp in our company's history," she said.
"Blackwell sales were led by large cloud service providers which represented approximately 50% of our Data Center revenue," she said.
Nvidia's adjusted gross profit margin declined to 73.5% in fiscal Q4, vs. 75% in Q3 and 76.7% in the year-earlier period.
The gross margin decline was "primarily due to a transition to more complex and higher cost systems within Data Center."
But after sliding in extended trading, Nvidia rose nearly 3% as the tech giant's earnings call began.
4:50 p.m. ET
Blackwell Demand Called 'Amazing'
On a year-over-year basis, Nvidia's adjusted Q4 earnings rose 71% while sales increased 78%.
Nvidia's data center revenue surged 93% from a year ago to $35.6 billion. Sales in the segment were up 16% from the fiscal third quarter.
"Demand for Blackwell is amazing as reasoning AI adds another scaling law — increasing compute for training makes models smarter and increasing compute for long thinking makes the answer smarter," Chief Executive Jensen Huang said in a news release.
"We've successfully ramped up the massive-scale production of Blackwell AI supercomputers, achieving billions of dollars in sales in its first quarter," he said. "AI is advancing at light speed as agentic AI and physical AI set the stage for the next wave of AI to revolutionize the largest industries."
Nvidia stock recovers, but still down a fraction.
4:35 p.m. ET
Nvidia Stock Slips
AI giant posted results that beat estimates. Stand by for more live coverage.
3:35 p.m. ET
Nvidia Stock Hangs On To Gains
Nvidia stock were ahead nearly 3% with less than a half hour left in the trading session. The broader market was in the red, with the Dow pulling back a fraction.
2:32 p.m. ET
Nvidia Stock Pulls Back From Highs
In intraday trading on Wednesday, Nvidia shares climbed as high as 133.73, up 5.6% on the day. It almost touched its 50-day line but then reversed.
In recent trades, Nvidia stock was up 2.7% to 130.02.
11:50 a.m. ET
What To Do After Nvidia Earnings?
In a client note Wednesday morning, BofA Securities analyst Vivek Arya provided three potential scenarios for investors to consider before Nvidia's earnings report. They included a base case, bull case and bear case.
The baseline view is for a fourth-quarter beat with an in-line outlook for the first quarter on a slower Blackwell ramp and looming China trade restrictions. The bull scenario would be if Q4 sales and Q1 revenue guidance both beat views by $1 billion to $2 billion-plus and for Q1 gross margin to stay above 71% to 72%. Both would support Nvidia stock gains, Arya said.
However, under the bear case, Nvidia stock is likely to fall to the lower end of its recent trading range, Arya said. The bear case calls for in-line Q4 results and in-line to lower Q1 guidance, 70% or lower gross margin with no reiteration of a second-half 2025 pick-up in business.
But in most scenarios, Nvidia stock is likely to rise in the lead up to the company's GTC conference, aka "AI Woodstock," Arya said. GTC is scheduled for March 17-21 in San Jose, Calif.
Arya rates Nvidia stock as buy with a price target of 190.
9:45 a.m. ET
Nvidia Stock Leads Market Higher
Nvidia rose more than 3% in early trades as the broader market advanced. More stock market news.
9:15 a.m. ET
Nvidia Stock: Will It 'Do Enough To Reverse Weakness'?
Mizuho Securities trading desk analyst Jordan Klein summed up the fears of investors in a client note early Wednesday.
He said Nvidia's report and earnings call are probably going to "set the tone for the next move" in tech stocks and equities broadly.
"I just worry NVDA alone is not going to say and do enough to break the momentum downtrend and … reverse the weakness and uncertainty surrounding many of the real and quality AI and tech names over the near term. I think that comes later in (the) year," he said.
Nvidia stock up more than 2% premarket.
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