‘Don’t expect another rally on May 22,’ says Piper Sandler on Nvidia shares

As earnings season draws to a close, Wall Street is still waiting for a market giant to deliver its latest financial report. It would be Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA)a name closely associated with the AI-driven rally seen over the past year and a half.

The microchip giant is partly to blame for the bullish market sentiment after a series of crushing quarterly reports helped make the semi-financial firm the third most valuable company in the world.

So, as Nvidia prepares to release its first quarter (April quarter) financial results next Wednesday (May 22), can investors expect another strong performance?

That’s entirely likely, says Piper Sandler’s Harsh Kumar, an analyst ranked in the Street’s top 1% of equity experts.

“We continue to see strong demand for NVDA’s data center products and believe the company is poised for another quarter of growth,” the 5-star analyst said. “Demand for Hopper GPUs remains strong, with supply still struggling to catch up with demand as the product is still in allocation. Our checks indicate that demand for the Blackwell GPU series is also expected to be strong among NVDA’s data center customer base.

Kumar’s bullish scenario assumes that Nvidia can potentially beat Street revenue expectations by $1.5 billion to $2.0 billion for both April and similarly for the July quarter.

However, don’t expect this to cause the stock price to rise, as such a scenario has become quite normal. Historically, looking at the previous 3 quarters, the company has exceeded Street revenue forecasts by an average of $1.9 billion. So, due to “high investor expectations,” if that happens again, Kumar predicts the stock will be “flat to slightly up.”

Looking ahead, Kumar has an optimistic stance regarding the second half, anticipating sales of new architectures due to the TCO benefits of the Blackwell GPU series.

“Overall,” the analyst summarized, “NVDA remains our top pick for large caps and we remain optimistic that the Blackwell Series will provide meaningful revenue acceleration over the long term.”

As a result, Kumar rates NVDA an Overweight (i.e. Buy), while his $1,050 price target suggests the stock will climb 11% over the coming months. (To see Kumar’s track record, click here)

Among Kumar’s Wall Street colleagues, 39 other analysts join him in the bull camp, overwhelming the 2 recorded holds, all resulting in a Strong Buy consensus rating. Based on an average target of $1,026, the stock could see ~9% upside in the coming year. (See Nvidia Stock Forecast)

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the analyst featured. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.