Nvidia stock remained atop its lofty perch Friday after the AI chipmaker smashed estimates for its fiscal first quarter earlier this week and surprised Wall Street with its super-bullish forecast.
After rocketing more than 24% higher Thursday in the wake of its earnings report, Nvidia showed no signs of giving back those massive gains Friday. Shares climbed another 2.5% to close at 389.46 on the stock market today.
During Thursday's massive gains, more than 154 million shares of Nvidia changed hands, 257% higher than normal. In intraday trading, Nvidia climbed as high as 394.80, up 29%. With the move, it passed its previous record high 346.47, reached in November 2021. Year to date through Wednesday's close, Nvidia stock had already climbed 109%.
When it issued its earnings late Wednesday, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company predicted sales of $11 billion, up 64% year over year, for the current quarter. Analysts had been looking for revenue of $7.2 billion for the fiscal second quarter.
Nvidia also handily beat estimates for its fiscal first quarter ended April 30, though sales dropped 13% amid continued weak gaming-chip sales.
But the story driving excitement for Nvidia stock is artificial intelligence. Chief Executive Jensen Huang says his company is ramping up production to meet the massive demand for AI technology, including its industry-leading graphics processing units.
Nvidia Stock Surges After Report
Nvidia executives said they expect the company's strong data-center sales growth to continue throughout the year.
Other AI-focused stocks continued to move higher. Rival GPU maker Advanced Micro Devices saw its stock jump 11% Thursday, and shares were up another 5.6% Friday to 127.03. After climbing nearly 4% Thursday, software giant Microsoft advanced another 2.1% to 332.89 Friday.
Meanwhile, Nvidia's contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing also got a bump on the news. TSM stock popped 12% Thursday and was up another 2.2% Friday to 103.21.
And data-center hardware firm Super Micro Computer saw its shares surge more than 23.4% Thursday, then added another 6% Friday to 219.18.
More than two dozen Wall Street analysts raised their price targets on Nvidia stock after the company's massive beat-and-raise report.
Several analysts predicted that Nvidia would be the next company to reach a market value of $1 trillion. As of Thursday's close, Nvidia was worth $938 billion.
Wall Street Full Of Superlatives For Nvidia News
Analysts called Nvidia's report "amazing," "epic," "stunning," "unfathomable" and "jaw-dropping."
"What can we say other than just WOW!," Evercore ISI analyst C.J. Muse said in a note to clients. "We've simply never seen a beat like this … ever."
Muse kept his outperform rating on Nvidia stock and raised his price target to 500 from 320.
"The obvious drivers here are accelerated computing and generative AI, but the magnitude of the beat amidst supply constraints is just amazing," Muse said.
JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur said Nvidia is well positioned to capitalize on the AI trend. The company has made itself the "one-stop solution provider" with its portfolio of semiconductors, computing and networking hardware, software and services. Sur maintained his overweight rating on NVDA stock but upped his price target to 500 from 250.
Nvidia Grabbing AI Spending
"We believe this is just the beginning of a paradigm-altering generative AI wave and, so far, it seems that Nvidia is the one capturing nearly all the economics," Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis said in a note to clients. He kept his overweight rating on NVDA stock and upped his price target to 500 from 275.
Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Christopher Rolland concurred with that assessment.
"It looks like the new gold rush is upon us, and Nvidia is selling all the picks and shovels," Rolland said in a note to clients. He kept his positive rating on Nvidia stock and raised his price target to 450 from 350.
Nvidia's report is a sign that artificial intelligence has reached an inflection point, Rosenblatt Securities analyst Hans Mosesmann said in a note to clients. He reiterated his buy rating on Nvidia stock and raised his price target to 600 from 320.
The next catalyst for Nvidia stock could be CEO Huang's keynote speech Monday at the Computex conference in Taiwan.
Follow Patrick Seitz on Twitter at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories on consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.
