Nvidia stock rises ahead of highly anticipated quarterly results

Nvidia (NVDA) stock gained more than 2% on Wednesday afternoon ahead of the company's highly anticipated quarterly earnings report due after the closing bell.

Shares of the chipmaker reached an intraday record high above $481 on Tuesday before losing ground during the session, falling 2.7% on the day. On Monday, Nvidia stock rose more than 5%.

Wall Street analysts are expecting the chip giant to post second quarter adjusted earnings of $2.07 per share and revenue of $11.04 billion, according to Bloomberg data.

Analysts have been raising their price targets on Nvidia stock in a string of bullish calls over the past few weeks.

"We expect a significant beat" for Nvidia's fiscal second quarter, Baird's Tristan Gerra and his team in a recent note to investors. The firm cited "very significant momentum in AI demand for Nvidia" and raised its price target on the stock to $570 from $475 while maintaining an Outperform rating.

"NVIDIA remains our Top Pick, with a backdrop of the massive shift in spending towards AI, and a fairly exceptional supply demand imbalance that should persist for the next several quarters," Morgan Stanley's Joseph Moore and his team wrote in a note to clients.

Meanwhile, UBS analysts raised their price target to $540 from $475, writing that Nvidia "is quite literally serving as 'kingmaker' as a huge wave of capital and new financing vehicles are chasing new AI software and specialized cloud infrastructure models."

Nvidia stock has been on fire since the start of 2023, rising more than 210% year to date.

The chipmaker led the tech sector higher earlier in the year as it moved to center stage amid an AI craze, thanks to its high-powered graphics cards and server products.

Information technology stocks have pulled back a bit in recent weeks amid concerns about an overbought market and rising bond yields. August is also historically a weak month for stocks.

In the first two weeks of August, Nvidia stock fell as much as 12% from recent highs.

"We think the recent selloff is a good entry point," wrote Morgan Stanley's Moore.

Jensen Huang, President of NVIDIA, holding the Grace hopper superchip CPU used for generative AI.
Jensen Huang, President of NVIDIA holding the Grace hopper superchip CPU used for generative AI at supermicro keynote presentation during the COMPUTEX 2023. (Walid Berrazeg/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Ines is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @ines_ferre

Click here for the latest stock market news and in-depth analysis, including events that move stocks

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance