Nvidia NVDA.O on Wednesday communicated forecasts slightly above expectations for the current quarter, which however did not convince some very demanding investors with the semiconductor manufacturer, which is the company with the largest global valuation .
The group based in Santa Clara, California saw its stock fall by around 2% in after-hours trading, after having recorded a decline of 0.76% during the session on Wall Street.
Over the October-December period, Nvidia anticipates a turnover of 37.5 billion dollars, with a margin of error of 2% downwards or upwards, against a consensus of 37.09 billion according to LSEG data.
Group chief executive Jensen Huang said the era of artificial intelligence (AI) is “fired into full gear”, welcoming the “incredible” demand for the two cutting-edge AI-powering chips made by Nvidia.
Ahead of the results release, expectations were very high, as Nvidia shares rose more than 20% over the past two months and saw their value almost quadruple since the start of the year.
“Investors have become accustomed to this company beating expectations by a wide margin, but doing so is getting harder and harder,” said Ryan Detrick, market strategist at Carson Group.
“It's still solid data, but the reality is that with such a high bar, things become more difficult,” he added.
While demand for Nvidia chips has continued to grow, problems in supply chains have prevented the technology giant from recording results as “stunning” as those that helped make it the darling of Wall Street.
According to data released Wednesday, Nvidia reported third-quarter adjusted earnings of 81 cents per share, compared to analysts' average expectations of 75 cents.
Quarterly sales of the data center division, which represents the majority of the group's revenues, jumped 112% to $30.77 billion, after climbing 154% in the July-September period.
(Arsheeya Bajwa in Bangalore and Max A. Cherney in San Francisco; French version Jean Terzian)
