Image source: NVIDIA Corporation
What happened
Shares of NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA 4.43%) rose 29.6% in the month of November, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, after the graphics chip specialist's third-quarter results absolutely crushed expectations.
So what
More specifically, NVIDIA achieved substantially all its gains last month when the stock popped nearly 30% on Nov. 11, 2016. The previous evening, NVIDIA had told investors revenue climbed an incredible 54% year over year, to $2.00 billion, and translated to 104% growth in adjusted earnings per share, to $0.94.
By comparison, analysts' consensus estimates had predicted NVIDIA would turn in quarterly revenue of just $1.69 billion, and earnings of only $0.69 per share.
And NVIDIA's growth was broad-based across its key segments, notably including 63% growth in gaming market revenue, to $1.2 billion, 193% growth from the data center market, to $240 million, and 61% growth from automotive, to $127 million.
"We had a breakout quarter -- record revenue, record margins and record earnings were driven by strength across all product lines," explained NVIDIA founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. "Our new Pascal GPUs are fully ramped and enjoying great success in gaming, [virtual reality], self-driving cars and datacenter AI computing."
Now what
What's more, NVIDIA remains on track to meet its goal of returning $1.0 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases this fiscal year. And the company has set a goal of increasing capital returns to $1.25 billion next fiscal year. Part of that will come from NVIDIA's healthy quarterly dividend, which it also increased by 22% last month, to $0.14 per share.
In the end, there was nothing not to like about this incredible quarter from NVIDIA as it continues to make its flagship GPU technology ever more pervasive. Assuming NVIDIA can sustain this position of relative strength going forward, I think the stock should continue to deliver market-beating returns for investors.
