Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors bought 5,059,718 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 35% compared to the average daily volume of 3,760,889 call options.

NVIDIA Trading Down 6.2 %

NASDAQ NVDA traded down $9.29 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $140.14. The stock had a trading volume of 349,868,488 shares, compared to its average volume of 259,980,969. The company has a market capitalization of $3.43 trillion, a PE ratio of 55.15, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.64. NVIDIA has a twelve month low of $49.48 and a twelve month high of $153.13. The company has a quick ratio of 3.64, a current ratio of 4.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $139.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $128.28.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last issued 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. NVIDIA had a net margin of 55.69% and a return on equity of 114.83%. The firm had revenue of $35.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.38 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 93.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that NVIDIA will post 2.78 earnings per share for the current year.

NVIDIA Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John Dabiri sold 716 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.00, for a total transaction of $101,672.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 19,942 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,831,764. This trade represents a 3.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Mark A. Stevens sold 155,000 shares of NVIDIA stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.27, for a total transaction of $20,501,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,100,117 shares in the company, valued at $1,071,402,475.59. This trade represents a 1.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,226,886 shares of company stock valued at $161,499,400. Company insiders own 4.23% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NVIDIA

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lantz Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of NVIDIA by 833.1% in the 2nd quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 41,188 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $5,088,000 after buying an additional 36,774 shares in the last quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. raised its position in shares of NVIDIA by 896.9% during the 2nd quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 6,330 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $782,000 after purchasing an additional 5,695 shares during the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NVIDIA during the second quarter valued at $1,252,000. Focus Financial Network Inc. increased its position in NVIDIA by 1,026.3% during the 2nd quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 1,812,060 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $213,805,000 after purchasing an additional 1,651,175 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Horizons Wealth Management raised its stake in NVIDIA by 842.9% in the 2nd quarter. Horizons Wealth Management now owns 1,320 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $156,000 after purchasing an additional 1,180 shares during the last quarter. 65.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of NVIDIA from $170.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of NVIDIA from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Evercore ISI increased their price target on NVIDIA from $189.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on NVIDIA from $115.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on NVIDIA from $140.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NVIDIA presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $164.15.

About NVIDIA

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.