NVIDIA Issues Weak Q2 Revenue Forecast

NVIDIA Corporation NVDA reported upbeat earnings for the fiscal first quarter on Thursday, but issued a weak sales guidance. The Santa Clara, California-based company posted quarterly net income of $134 million, or $0.24 per share, versus $137 million, or $0.24 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Excluding non-recurring items, the company's adjusted earnings came in at $0.33 per share. Its revenue climbed 4.4 percent to $1.15 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.25 per share on revenue of $1.16 billion. GAAP gross margin widened to 56.7 percent from 54.8 percent. Worldwide PC shipments slipped 6.7 percent to 68.5 million units. During the quarter, the company repurchased 2.4 million shares and paid $46 million in cash dividends. The company announced a 15 percent gain in its quarterly cash dividend to $0.0975 per share, versus $0.085 per share. "The importance of visual computing is evident all around us," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer of NVIDIA. "Our expertise in this field enables us to take a leading position to advance deep learning, virtual reality and self-driving cars." For the second quarter, NVIDIA projected revenue of $1.01 billion, plus or minus 2 percent, versus analysts' estimates of $1.18 billion. The company also expected adjusted gross margin of 56.0 percent, plus or minus 0.5 percentage points. NVIDIA shares fell 1.96 percent to $22.05 in the after-hours trading session.