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Individual investors flooded in Nvidia The announcement was made Thursday following the chipmaker’s latest earnings report, according to VandaTrack.
Analyst Viraj Patel said retail traders had the highest level of net long positions in the company’s stock during the first 80 minutes of a trading day dating back to at least 2012. Patel said the slow response to blockbuster products was not the retailer’s fault.
There are some caveats. Patel said there are strong buys and strong sells for the chipmaker. That would help explain the stock’s volatile movement in morning trading, he added.
“The flow went both ways,” Patel wrote in a memo Thursday. “(Nvidia’s) total retail sales were also pretty impressive at the start of the session.”
Thursday’s action followed the AI darling’s results that beat analysts’ expectations and came with strong guidance. Nvidia also reported a 75% increase in revenue from its core data center business, which contributed to a 73% increase in the company’s overall revenue.
The stock was slightly higher in morning trading, but was down more than 4% in midday trading.
Nvidia, 1 day chart
broadcom, iShares Enhanced Technology Software Sector ETF (IGV) and iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) Mr Patel said he was seeing “spillover buying” as retail investors expanded their activities more broadly.
“If this continues, we could be on the cusp of the biggest day of retail buying of individual stocks in recent months, which is very important for the overall risk view,” Patel said.
Admittedly, everyday traders were relatively cautious about Nvidia’s report. Banda said Wednesday that average daily net flows in the five days before the release were $94 million, about half the amount seen in the run-up to the previous report.
NVIDIA has been a top stock for retail investors since 2023, according to Vanda data. Despite Thursday’s decline, Wall Street is bullish on the path forward. The typical analyst surveyed by LSEG has a buy rating and price target that suggests the stock could rise more than 35% over the next 12 months.
