Why A Pullback Is Just What Nvidia Needed

NVIDIA Corporation NVDA was one of 2016's hottest stocks, but after hitting an all-time high of $119.93 in late 2016, the stock briefly dipped below the $100 per share mark on Tuesday.

According to Citi's Atif Malik, the approximate $20 per share decline in Nvidia's stock is actually "healthy" and can be attributed to competitive concerns.

Looking forward, the analyst sees Nvidia's stock appreciating on higher auto sales — driven in part by the company's autonomous technologies, which it supplies to car makers and tier 1 suppliers.

"Fundamentally, we believe artificial intelligence led data center, VR, and self-driving car markets are growing fast and competition is unlikely to derail Nvidia's growth given strong GPU technology leadership position," the analyst argued in his research report.

Malik further noted that Nvidia's management team will take center stage at several events at the Consumer Electronic Show this year, including a keynote presentation given by the company's founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang on Wednesday.

The analyst expects deep learning enabled auto and data center products to be the central themes of Nvidia's presentations.

Citi will also host an investor meeting with Nvidia's management team on Thursday, and the analyst will likely follow up with his remarks in a future research report.

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