Goldman says buy Nvidia with conviction, earnings to top Street next week

Goldman Sachs is staying bullish on Nvidia ahead of the leading AI chipmaker’s second-quarter earnings announcement on August 28. Nvidia is up by 153% year to date, but nearly all of that came before the end of June. Shares have experienced pressure in recent weeks — up less than 2% in the third quarter — amid heightened market volatility and questions on the sustainability of the AI trade. Since its all-time high in mid-June, Nvidia is down 11%. NVDA YTD mountain Nvidia in 2024 Analyst Toshiya Hari reiterated his buy rating and 12-month price target of $135 in a note to clients on Sunday, saying Goldman expects “Nvidia to report FY2Q (July) revenue and EPS that exceed Street consensus driven by upside to Data Center revenues and strong operating leverage.” Despite recent reports that shipments of the company’s Blackwell chip may be delayed, Hari believes this will have little to no impact on its earnings power in 2025. “Importantly, we believe customer demand across the large Cloud Service Providers and enterprises is strong and Nvidia’s robust competitive position in AI/accelerated computing remains intact,” Hari said. “From a stock perspective, we believe the set-up for NVDA is constructive with the stock trading at 42x [next 12-month] consensus EPS or a relative premium of only 46% (vs. its past 3-year median of 151%),” he added. Demand for AI infrastructure remains robust, the Goldman analyst wrote Hari. He also forecasts more opportunities for Nvidia in its data center segment. Goldman forecasts data center revenue climbing by double digits through 2026. —CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.