Sometimes I wonder what it takes to win love and respect from investors. NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) had not one but two positive business catalysts today, yet the stock is trading down on a generally positive market day.
First, Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) announced that it's going leaderless for a while, which could give NVIDIA an opportunity to pounce on unprotected weak spots in its graphics-and-processor rival. This alone should be enough to boost the stock by a couple of percentage points.
Next, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) broke out the peace pipe -- along with a $1.5 billion check. Intel's press release focuses on the cross-licensing of technology patents. NVIDIA cares less about the patents; its headline points you right to the coming five years of steady cash payments. This outcome isn't a shock, but the size of the settlement should still be a positive surprise for NVIDIA investors.
So I don't know what's up with the sliding share price today. Granted, NVIDIA has nearly doubled over the last three months, and made a strong showing at last week's CES show. Perhaps we're just looking at some profit-taking now that the whole Intel litigation mess has been settled.
NVIDIA remains at a crossroads in its history. Its graphics chips for desktops and notebooks are becoming less relevant, replaced by Tesla supercomputing chips and Tegra mobile processors. One reason why CEO Jen-Hsun Huang merely shrugs at the Intel licensing stuff might be that he considers mobile chip producers Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM), and Marvell Technology Group (Nasdaq: MRVL) more direct rivals than Intel over the next few years.
But the license payments will help. So will AMD's lack of leadership.
