NVIDIA Shares Popped: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: NVIDIA (NAS: NVDA) popped 11% in intraday trading today after reporting better than expected earnings.

So what: Non-GAAP EPS of $0.32 came in well ahead of the $0.25 consensus estimate. GAAP EPS of $0.25 improved markedly from -$0.25 in the year-ago quarter. Revenue of $1.02 billion grew 25% year over year and 6% quarter over quarter. Management said it expects revenue for the current quarter to grow 4%-6% sequentially, with gross margins holding flat.

Now what: The company cited consumer notebook demand for the strong quarter and one analyst said NVIDIA is taking graphic processor market share from Advanced Micro Devices (NYS: AMD) . A competing analyst expressed concern that NVIDIA will lose share to Intel's (NAS: INTC) Sandy Bridge microprocessors, which incorporate graphics processors. With industry growth shifting from PCs to smartphones and tablets, NVIDIA's future seems to hinge on its Tegra processors for mobile devices. The CEO said, "With Tegra's momentum and our growing GPU (graphics processer unit) businesses, we are ideally positioned to lead the industry forward."

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At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Cindy Johnson does not own shares of any company named above. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.

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