Nvidia smashes Q1 estimates but outlook is wobbly
Nvidia has a lot to be proud of on its first quarter earnings report, but the outlook is close to the edge.
The GPU maker reported first quarter earnings of $77.9 million, or 13 cents a share (statement). Non-GAAP earnings were 18 cents a share on a revenue of $954.7 million.
Wall Street was looking for Nvidia to report first quarter earnings of 10 cents a share on revenue of $940.57 million.
In prepared remarks, Nvidia president and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang attributed Q1's success to "Kepler-based GPUs within and beyond the PC."
Kepler is capturing share among gamers, strengthening our workstation and supercomputing segments, and will fuel new growth opportunities for our GRID server graphics solutions. With Tegra 4 devices and Tegra 4i certification on the way, we're gearing up to return to growth in the second half.
For the second quarter, Nvidia provided revenue guidance of $975 million, plus or minus two percent. But Wall Street wants Nvidia to report earnings of 14 cents a share on revenue of $1 billion.
Given the margin of error provided, Nvidia is cutting it close. But based on Q1 results, it's quite possible the visual computing company could make up the difference in three months.
More highlights from Nvidia's Q1 report:
- Nvidia revealed it plans to return more than $1 billion to shareholders during fiscal 2014.
- Nvidia will pay its next quarterly cash dividend of $0.075 cents per share on June 14 to all stockholders of record on May 23.
- Introduced GRID VCA visual computing appliance for Windows, Linux and Mac clients; GeForce GTX TITAN supercomputer graphics card for gamers; Tegra 4i 4G LTE mobile processor
- GRID-based servers are now available from Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. GRID-enabled software now available from Citrix, Microsoft and VMware.
Chart via Nvidia Investor Relations