While much has been made of chip stock Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) place in the AI gold rush, it’s easy to forget that Nvidia also has a substantial presence in gaming. Nvidia is a major supplier of graphics processors that make gaming the fun and relaxing hobby it is today. And the news that its gaming sales might come in better than expected is giving Nvidia a little extra juice in Wednesday morning’s trading.
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Word from Citi, via analyst Atif Malik, noted that gaming-related data is on the rise and above previous expectations. Graphics card sales are running up about 19% against what they were this time last month, and normally, only a 12% increase should have been seen. Therefore, Citi noted that a sequential gaming sales increase of 7% instead of the originally projected 3% was likely for Nvidia. Nvidia’s CFO, Colette Kress, noted that Nvidia has recently seen a lot of improvement in GPU laptops, so much so that they’re now outstripping desktop GPUs in sales in quite a few areas.
There’s actually a likely reason for this. First, we’ve got holiday shopping coming up, and gamers are comparatively easy to shop for. Maybe not always the cheapest—a problem in a slumping macroeconomic environment—but certainly easy. Second, with several major new releases recently out, from the latest “Assassin’s Creed” to the unexpected return of “Armored Core” to the blockbuster launch of “Starfield,” we’ve got a lot of new games to play. That, in turn, means new hardware and Nvidia is at the front of the pack.
Is Nvidia a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on NVDA stock based on 38 Buys and one Hold assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average NVDA price target of $647.04 per share implies 39.67% upside potential.
