While the S&P 500 index may have slipped on Friday, and other tech stocks are licking wounds from Donald Trump’s election victory, one stock was bravely leading the risers - and done so in spectacular style: PC graphics maker Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA).
The stock shot up as much as 28.5% this session, which contrasts with some of the sickly share movements for other Silicon Valley stocks since Trump was the surprise winner for the White House on Wednesday.
NVIDIA designs graphics processing units for the gaming market, as well as system on a chip units for the mobile computing and automotive market.
The chipmaker posted better-than-expected profits and sales.
Nvidia reported fiscal third-quarter 2017 earnings per share of 83 cents on revenue of $2bn. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast profits of 57 cents per share on sales of $1.69bn. The company also increased its quarterly dividend by 22% to 14 cents per share and increased its buyback programme by $2bn.
The company has called it a “breakout quarter” and there is no disguising it.
As analysts at Zacks opined: “NVIDIA posted outstanding third-quarter fiscal 2017 results and provided an encouraging fourth-quarter revenue guidance. Also, the company registered year-over-year growth on both counts, primarily due to growth across all its four platforms. Also, better-than-expected demand for its gaming chips used in personal computers helped the company to post encouraging results.
“Furthermore, we believe that NVIDIA’s innovative product pipeline and strength in gaming and high-end notebook GPUs keep it well positioned. We also believe that the higher adoption of NVIDIA’s Tegra processors could act as a catalyst, going forward,” Zacks said on the results.
But they also warned that competition from the likes of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), flat at $34.50 and QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), up 0.5% at $66.68, remains a near-term headwind.
The tech sector as a whole, however, is looking glumly beyond the weekend. During the election campaign Trump, the outsider many investors didn’t expect to win, called for a boycott of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) products for its heavy reliance on overseas manufacturing, accused IBM (NYSE:IBM) of moving jobs outside of the United States, and suggested that Amazon () was an illegal monopoly.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is the owner of the Washington Post, a news operation which has been a steady critic of Trump. Trump has accused Amazon of controlling too much of domestic commerce and paying too little in taxes.
And late in October Amazon disappointed with forecast-missing earnings.
On Friday, Amazon shares were not even picking up on news that from Monday the company will stage a PR offensive – turning the “Black Friday” discounting extravaganza into a two-week spectacle as it gears up for holiday season sales.
On Friday Apple shares were 0.3% higher at $108.09 and IBM up 0.2% at $160.61.
NVIDIA, meanwhile, was up 28% at $86.72. Perhaps in part for having not faced the wrath of Trump during the election campaign.