Why NVIDIA Is a Likely Good Buy

Graphics chip maker NVIDIA (NAS: NVDA) recently received a ratings boost from Canaccord Genuity. The company upgraded NVIDIA's stock from a hold to a buy. So, is this a good enough reason to stock up on NVIDIA at current levels? Let's take a closer look.

Well, for a start, NVIDIA is one of the few companies that is enjoying more demand than it can handle. Its newest 28-nanometer Kepler-based GPUs, which find a prominent place in next-gen notebooks where Intel's (NAS: INTC) Ivy Bridge chips also factor prominently, are being manufactured by foundry partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC). Unfortunately, TSMC has been unable to ramp up production because of certain difficulties it's been facing with the 28-nanometer based chip production line. And NVIDIA is certainly not alone: Peer Qualcomm, whose Snapdragon S4 chip has generated a lot of interest from OEMs, has also been on the receiving end of TSMC's production issues.

Coming back to NVIDIA, business has been brisk for its precious few Kepler GPUs, with Apple (NAS: AAPL) having selected them for its new line of MacBook laptops. On the other hand, Microsoft's (NAS: MSFT) recently launched Surface tablet would be also be using another NVIDIA offering-its Tegra 3 processor, which incidentally is a 40-nanometer process-based chip. That should ensure that the Tegra 3 remains unaffected by TSMC's production issues.

NVIDIA is also slated to release its very own Tegra 3 Icera baseband chips by the first half of next year. With Qualcomm currently facing problems with its 28-nanometer LTE baseband chips, NVIDIA can take advantage of the situation and boost sales of its Icera baseband products.

The Foolish bottom line
NVIDIA does have a solid financial standing with more than $3 billion in total cash and equivalents on its balance sheet. Add to that debt amounting to a meager $20 million, and you have a relatively solid company with fairly decent fundamentals.

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The article Why NVIDIA Is a Likely Good Buy originally appeared on Fool.com.

Keki Fatakia does not hold shares in any of the companies mentioned in this article.The Motley Fool owns shares of Microsoft and Qualcomm. The Fool owns shares of Apple. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Apple, Microsoft, and NVIDIA. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended writing puts on NVIDIA. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended creating a bull call spread position in Apple. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended creating a bull call spread position in Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.

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