Evercore ISI issued the highest NVDA target on Wall Street
Semiconductor name Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is soaring in early trading, after Evercore ISI reiterated its "outperform" rating and hiked its price target to $400 from $300 -- the highest on Wall Street, and representing expected upside of nearly 50% from yesterday's close. The analyst said Nvidia is "on the cusp of a tipping point in the company becoming the AI standard platform." In response, NVDA stock is up 3.3% at $276.40, at last check.
On the charts, NVDA has found support from its 32-week moving average, which has aided the semiconductor stock to a 43% year-to-date gain. Nvidia most recently surged to a fresh record peak of $285.22 on Sept. 4, and after a subsequent breather, is a chip-shot from new all-time high territory.
Evercore ISI's bull note is far from the only analyst attention NVDA has seen this month. In fact, heading into today, 18 of 25 analysts following the chip stock sport "buy" or "strong buy" recommendations, with not a "sell" on the books.
Digging deeper, NVDA options traders have been leaning bullishly in recent weeks. This is per the stock's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 1.79 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). Further, this lofty ratio stands in the 81st percentile of its annual range, suggesting calls have been bought to open over puts at a faster-than-usual clip during the past two weeks.
Lastly, now seems to be an attractive time for near-term traders to buy premium on NVDA options. The security sports a Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 27%, which ranks in just the 3rd annual percentile. In other words, short-term options are pricing in unusually low volatility expectations at the moment.