AI chip leader Nvidia topped even Wall Street's elevated "whisper numbers" with its fiscal first quarter results and guidance. The news sent Nvidia stock surging on Thursday.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company late Wednesday said its adjusted earnings rocketed 461% year over year to $6.12 a share in the quarter ended April 28. And its sales surged 262% to $26 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet had forecast earnings of $5.60 a share on sales of $24.59 billion.
For the current quarter, Nvidia expects to generate sales of $28 billion, up 107% year over year. Analysts had been looking for sales of $26.62 billion in the fiscal second quarter.
On a conference call with analysts late Wednesday, Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said he sees no letup in demand for the company's graphics processing units for generative artificial intelligence applications. He said demand will exceed supply well into next year.
"The demand for our GPUs in all the data centers is incredible," Huang said. Companies are upgrading their data centers from general-purpose computing to accelerated computing, he said.
Nvidia Stock Hits Buy Point
On the stock market today, Nvidia stock jumped 9.3% to close at 1,037.99. With the move, it broke out of an 11-week consolidation pattern at a buy point of 974, IBD MarketSurge charts show.
In intraday trading, Nvidia stock notched a record high of 1,063.20.
Nvidia's customer base for AI processors is expanding from hyperscale cloud service providers to other enterprises, governments and startups, Huang said.
Some 15,000 to 20,000 startup companies are pursuing generative AI applications in media, design, digital biology, productivity and other applications, Huang said.
Plus, Nvidia is on a rapid pace of development, delivering new generations of processors every year, he said.
"We're on a one-year rhythm," Huang said. But customers realize that they have to act quickly with their data center upgrades and get AI processors as they're available and not wait for the next model, he said.
Ugly Market Day Despite Nvidia; Deckers Soars Late
NVDA Stock Gets Flurry Of Price-Target Hikes
More than 30 Wall Street firms raised their price targets on Nvidia stock after the company's Q1 beat-and-raise report.
Another stock moving on the Nvidia news was computer maker Dell Technologies. Dell stock rose 3.9% to close at 153.57.
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