NVIDIA (NVDA) Stock: Wall Street Places Bullish Bets Ahead of Earnings Showdown

Tech investors hold their breath as NVDA preps to report—will it meet the Street’s sky-high expectations or trigger a sell-the-news bloodbath?

Semiconductor giant NVIDIA faces its moment of truth this week. Analysts project another blowout quarter, but whisper numbers suggest even those targets might be conservative. The stock’s 180% run since last year leaves little margin for error.

Meanwhile, hedge funds quietly load up on call options—because nothing says ’conviction’ like leveraged gambling with other people’s money.

TLDR:

• NVIDIA stock rose 0.8% to $132.86 ahead of next week’s Q1 earnings report
• Wells Fargo maintained an Overweight rating with a $185 price target
• New NVLink Fusion technology allows third-party custom silicon and CPUs to integrate with NVIDIA’s memory coherent interconnect
• Oppenheimer analyst expects “upside results” despite China chip restrictions
• Initial partners for NVLink expansion include Marvell, Alchip, MediaTek, Astera Labs, Fujitsu, and Qualcomm

NVIDIA is seeing its stock rise ahead of next week’s highly anticipated earnings report. The chip giant is expanding its NVLink technology to third parties while analysts remain bullish despite ongoing China export restrictions.

NVIDIA shares climbed 0.8% to $132.86 in early Thursday trading. The rise comes with just days remaining until the company’s first-quarter earnings report, scheduled for after market close next Wednesday.

The company’s quarterly results have become a must-watch event for investors. NVIDIA’s graphics processing unit sales often serve as a key indicator of broader artificial intelligence market demand.

Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers maintained an Overweight rating on Nvidia with a price target of $185 on Wednesday. This target suggests potential upside of nearly 40% from current trading levels.

Rakers highlighted NVIDIA’s recent announcement of NVLink Fusion as particularly promising. This technology extends the company’s NVLink capabilities into the custom AI ASIC market.

NVIDIA introduces NVLink Fusion — a new silicon technology that enables hyperscalers to build custom AI compute with unprecedented scale-up performance, using NVIDIA’s industry-proven NVLink rack architecture.

🔗https://t.co/bg1USePUeL#COMPUTEX2025 #GTCTaipei pic.twitter.com/KxrUyK698v

— NVIDIA Newsroom (@nvidianewsroom) May 19, 2025

Technology Advantages

The NVLink interconnect offers major bandwidth advantages compared to industry standard PCIe connectivity. NVLink version 5 delivers bandwidth of 1.8TB/s – more than 14 times that of PCIe Gen5.

Future improvements look even more impressive. The upcoming NVLink version 6, expected in the second half of 2026, is projected to double bandwidth to 3.6TB/s with Rubin R200 GPUs.

NVIDIA’s strategic MOVE to externalize NVLink technology strengthens its competitive position. By enabling its Grace and Vera CPUs to connect with custom accelerators and CPUs, the company extends its ecosystem reach.

Initial partners for this expansion include several major tech companies. Marvell, Alchip, MediaTek, and Astera Labs have signed on, with Synopsys and Cadence providing IP blocks and design services.

Fujitsu and Qualcomm have also joined as initial partners for custom CPU integration. This broad support suggests strong industry interest in NVIDIA’s interconnect technology.

Earnings Expectations

Oppenheimer analyst Rick Schafer expressed Optimism about NVIDIA’s upcoming earnings report. In a research note published late Wednesday, he predicted “upside results and a roughly in-line July-quarter outlook.”

This positive outlook comes despite challenges from U.S. government restrictions on chip sales to China. These curbs have stopped NVIDIA from selling its advanced H20 AI chips to Chinese customers.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has publicly criticized these export restrictions. However, analysts still view the company as exceptionally well-positioned in the AI market.

Schafer rates NVIDIA shares at Outperform with a $175 price target. This implies potential upside of 33% from current levels, reflecting strong confidence in the company’s market position.

Other chip stocks also showed strength on Thursday. Advanced Micro Devices ROSE 0.5%, Intel gained 0.9%, and Qualcomm added 0.5%.

NVIDIA continues to demonstrate strong financial health. The company has achieved revenue of $130.5 billion, representing growth of 114.2% according to recent data.

The semiconductor giant maintains impressive financial metrics. With a gross profit margin of 75% and a minimal debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, NVIDIA’s fundamentals remain solid.

These financial strengths help explain why multiple Wall Street firms maintain positive ratings. Citi reaffirmed a Buy rating, while Morgan Stanley kept an Overweight stance on the stock.

BofA Securities also reiterated a Buy rating with a $160 price target. Their analysis highlighted NVIDIA’s expanding AI product portfolio and strategic moves in the enterprise sector.

NVIDIA’s market capitalization currently stands at approximately $3.28 trillion. The company continues to cement its leadership position in AI infrastructure technology through strategic innovation and partnerships.