5 big earnings hits: Nvidia's bang-up Q2; retail's bottom-line beats

investing.com:

Here is your Pro Recap of the biggest earnings reports you may have missed this week and how analysts responded: numbers out of tech names Nvidia, Marvell, Snowflake, and Zoom, as well as retailers Ulta Beauty, Gap, and Nordstrom.

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Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) obliterated Wall Street expectations for Q2 and full-year revenue guidance as demand for its chips remains sky-high amid the race to adopt generative artificial intelligence.

Shares climbed as high as 6.6% to $502.66 in Thursday's regular session after the post-close Wednesday print — an all-time high for Nvidia — although the stock retreated to a marginal gain at $471.63 by the end of the day.

The chipmaker recorded earnings of $2.70 per share, $0.67 better than consensus, on revenue of $13.51 billion vs. the $11.13B average analyst estimate. Embedded in the sales number was a 171% surge in its high-margin data center business as businesses transition to accelerated computing and generative AI from general-purpose computing.

The chipmaker also unveiled an additional $25B stock buyback plan.

As AI demand ramps up, Nvidia's suite of AI-related products has become the dominant option for AI-minded startups and businesses. The chipmaker said it expects supply to rise each quarter through next year, and in particular expects Q3 sales of about $16B, give or take 2%, well above the $12B consensus.

That ebullient guidance, said Wedbush in a note to clients, «will be fuel in the engine to ignite a tech rally we see continuing into the rest of the year despite the recent pullback and Fed jitters.»

Stifel upgraded Nvidia to Buy from Hold with a price target of $600 on the «exceptional» quarter,