Evercore ISI hikes Nvidia price target to $400, citing A.I. leadership

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Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO, Nvidia

Nvidia shares will soar due to the company’s booming chip sales in key high-growth technology markets, according to Evercore ISI.

The research firm reiterated its outperform rating and increased its price target for Nvidia shares to $400 from $300, representing 50 percent upside to Thursday’s closing price. It is the highest target out of the 34 analysts who cover Nvidia, according to FactSet.

“NVDA continues to make a compelling case for long-term sustainable growth across all segments with a specific focus on large industry verticals including Gaming, HPC, Pro Visualization, Transport, Healthcare, and Autonomous Machines,” analyst C.J. Muse said in a note to clients Friday. “Very importantly, we view Nvidia as being on the cusp of a tipping point in the company becoming the AI standard platform.”

Nvidia shares surged 3 percent Friday morning. Its stock is up 38 percent this year through Thursday versus the S&P 500’s 9 percent gain.

Muse estimates that Nvidia will have a future addressable market of more than $50 billion in the data center and $60 billion in autonomous driving due to its artificial intelligence capabilities. He predicts the company can increase its earnings per share by 30 percent to 35 percent annually through 2020.

Nvidia’s AI software called CUDA has more than 1 million developers using it, according to Muse.

— CNBC’s
Michael Bloom
contributed to this story.