What happened
Shares of Nvidia (NVDA 4.35%) were up 3.8% as of 11:26 a.m. ET on Thursday after the company delivered better-than-expected financial results for the fiscal first quarter (which ended May 1). For the quarter, revenue grew 46% year over year. While it decelerated from the previous quarter's 53% growth rate, revenue of $8.29 billion beat expectations for $8.1 billion.
Moreover, adjusted earnings per share of $1.36 increased by a healthy 49% year over year and also slightly beat analyst estimates.
So what
One of the biggest concerns from analysts going into the quarter was the health of Nvidia's gaming business. Gaming revenue has remained strong throughout the pandemic due to limited availability of inventory coupled with high demand. After reporting growth of 37% in the previous quarter, the gaming segment remained strong, with revenue up 31% in the first quarter. Sales were driven by the GeForce RTX 30 series, which remains Nvidia's best gaming product cycle in history.
Data center remains on fire, with revenue soaring 83% year over year. The data center segment generated the highest amount of revenue for the company in the quarter, at $3.75 billion out of revenue across all segments of $8.3 billion. Nvidia reported strong demand for its A100 graphics processing units (GPUs) from consumer internet companies, financial services, and telecom.
Image source: Nvidia.
Now what
One segment investors should watch is the company's professional visualization segment. Growth here has been ramping up nicely in recent quarters. This segment includes revenue from the 3D graphics design platform Nvidia Omniverse and contributed 7.5% to Nvidia's total revenue. The segment grew 67% year over year compared with 21% in the same quarter last year.
The stock initially sold off in after-market trading on Wednesday after the earnings news hit the wires. This was likely due to the soft guidance for the fiscal second quarter, where revenue is expected to decelerate further. Management is calling for approximately $8.1 billion in revenue in Q2, representing growth of 25% year over year.
