Nvidia rises as Wall Street praises 'guidance for the ages'
Justin Sullivan
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares rose nearly 2.5% in early trading on Thursday - though well off the highs - after the semiconductor giant posted second-quarter results and guidance that Wall Street praised as being "for the ages." 
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said the results are a "historical moment for the broader tech sector," likening the guidance and commentary to that of a "drop the mic" moment.
"Very simply Nvidia's guidance and commentary was at "drop the mic" level as investors now recognize crystal clear this AI demand story is as REAL as any tech trend we have seen in the last 30 years only comparable to the Internet in 1995 and Apple's iPhone launch in 2007," Ives wrote in an investor note. 
Additionally, Ives likened Nvidia (NVDA) to several mega athletes, such as LeBron James, Tiger Woods, Patrick Mahomes or Caitlin Clark, calling the group "special, generational talents and different," much like the artificial intelligence theme.
"With names like Nvidia and once in 30 years tech trends like AI we believe investors need to have a 3-5 year view of where these growth stories go, what is the incremental margins and cash flow to the models down the road, how does the growth story change, sum of the parts valuations," Ives added.
Despite the strong results, other semiconductor stocks were mixed on Thursday, with Broadcom (AVGO) higher, while AMD (AMD), Marvell Technology (MRVL) and NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) slipped.
Looking ahead, Nvidia (NVDA) said it expects third-quarter sales at $16B, plus or minus 2%, well above the $12.5B that analysts were expecting.
Rosenblatt Securities analyst Hans Mosesmann raised his price target on Nvidia (NVDA) to a Wall Street high of $1,100 after the "epic print and guide."
"Jensen [Huang] made the case that looking at the data center installed base of $1 trillion, most of it will shift to accelerated computing from general purpose compute for generative AI models (training and inference)," Mosesmann wrote in an investor note. "Edge AI, automotive, enterprise, networking, and software are just gravy."
KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst John Vinh also praised the results and guidance, which he said was "well above expectations," while also pointing out that supply, including Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate supply from Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), is set to increase every quarter next year, as with visibility also deep into next year.
Vinh raised his price target to $670 from $620 following the results.
WestPark Capital analyst Kevin Garrigan upgraded Nvidia (NVDA) to buy from hold, while also boosting his price target to $690, noting that guidance "crushed" estimates, aided by the data center segment and the company's Hopper and Ampere GPUs.
BMO Capital Markets analyst Ambrish Srivastava reiterated his outperform rating and boosted his price target to $600 from $550, noting that the high expectations were "not a problem." 
"The AI demand continues to climb meaningfully higher," Srivastava wrote in an investor note.
Analysts are largely cautious on Nvidia (NVDA). It has a HOLD rating from Seeking Alpha authors, while Wall Street analysts rate it a BUY. Conversely, Seeking Alpha's quant system, which consistently beats the market, rates NVDA a HOLD.

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