Nvidia Profit Surges 31% - Update

(RTTNews) - Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) Wednesday said its fourth-quarter profit jumped 31 percent from a year ago, driven largely by a better-than-expected growth in revenues and stronger margins. Shares of the graphics chip maker gained over 4 percent in extended hours, following the results.

Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia's fourth-quarter profit rose to $193 million or $0.35 per share from $147 million or $0.25 per share last year. Excluding items, earnings rose to $0.43 per share from $0.32 per share a year ago.

On average, 27 analysts estimated earnings of $0.29 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Nvidia's revenues for the quarter grew 9 percent to $1.25 billion from $1.14 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.20 billion for the quarter.

Commenting on the results, Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang said, "Momentum is accelerating in each of our market-specialized platforms, driving record revenue in the quarter and full year."

Nvidia specializes in graphics processing units for PCs and video game consoles, while it has also expanded into the smartphone and tablet chip markets with its Tegra series. Recently, the company has also turned its focus on producing computing chips for high-end cars.

"Our DRIVE auto-computing platform is at the center of the advance toward self-driving cars. GRID is enabling enterprises to finally virtualize graphics-intensive applications. And our Tesla accelerated computing platform is helping to ignite the deep learning revolution," Huang said.

Nvidia's gross margin for the quarter improved to 55.9 percent from 54.1 percent last year.

Looking forward to the first quarter, the company expects revenue of $1.16 billion, plus or minus two percent. Analysts currently expect revenues of $1.15 billion for the quarter.

Nvidia plans to return about $600 million to shareholders through quarterly dividends and share repurchases in fiscal year 2016. The company will pay its next quarterly cash dividend of $0.085 per share on March 19.

NVDA closed Thursday's trading at $20.81, down $0.14 or 0.67%, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, gained $0.87 or 4.18% in after-hours trade.