What happened
Shares of NVIDIA (NVDA 3.71%) climbed on Thursday, following bullish analyst commentary. As of 3:45 p.m. EDT, the chipmaker's stock was up more than 5%.
So what
Raymond James analyst Chris Caso lifted his rating on NVIDIA's stock from outperform to strong buy and boosted his price forecast from $700 to $750. His new estimate represents potential gains for investors of roughly 16% from the stock's current price near $646.
Analysts see plenty of upside ahead for NVIDIA's shareholders. Image source: Getty Images.
Caso expects the current semiconductor supply shortage to improve later this year. He also sees NVIDIA's sales to large corporations benefiting as employees begin to return to their offices in the coming months.
Looking further ahead, Caso says NVIDIA's leadership in artificial intelligence will serve it well in the rapidly expanding cloud computing market.
Now what
NVIDIA's stock has been on fire since it announced its plans to enter the massive central processing unit (CPU) market with its new ARM-based "Grace" chip. The move will pit NVIDIA in direct competition with CPU leaders Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. Yet based on its recent share price gains, investors appear to like NVIDIA's chances at wrestling away considerable market share from its rivals.
