NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) Trading Down 1.3% – Here’s What Happened

Posted by Stanley Muller on May 18th, 2026

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA – Get Free Report)’s share price was down 1.3% on Monday . The company traded as low as $218.37 and last traded at $222.32. Approximately 144,682,403 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 15% from the average daily volume of 170,539,172 shares. The stock had previously closed at $225.32.

NVIDIA News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting NVIDIA this week:

Positive Sentiment: Several firms raised price targets ahead of earnings, including Morgan Stanley, DA Davidson, Wedbush and KeyBanc, reflecting continued Wall Street confidence in NVIDIA’s AI leadership and Blackwell/Rubin product cycle.
Positive Sentiment: Analysts and traders expect a “beat-and-raise” report driven by surging AI data center demand, which could reinforce the view that NVIDIA remains the core beneficiary of hyperscaler spending.
Positive Sentiment: Recent articles highlighted possible upside from China-related developments, including renewed H200 sales access and any improvement in monetizing Chinese demand, which could add to the growth narrative.
Positive Sentiment: Investor interest remains strong, with multiple hedge funds reportedly adding to NVIDIA positions and prediction markets leaning bullish on a post-earnings breakout.
Neutral Sentiment: Markets are also focused on whether CEO Jensen Huang addresses China, Trump administration policy, and trade restrictions on the earnings call, making geopolitics an important but still unresolved catalyst.
Negative Sentiment: Some commentary says NVIDIA may need a very large guidance raise to impress a market already priced for perfection, while concerns are building around memory shortages, sustainability of AI capex, and whether the stock has outrun near-term fundamentals.
Negative Sentiment: Shares have pulled back from recent highs as investors pause after the rally and wait for confirmation that growth can stay exceptional, increasing the risk of disappointment if earnings or guidance are merely good instead of great.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “buy” rating on shares of NVIDIA in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Fundamental Research set a $218.00 price target on NVIDIA in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective (up from $275.00) on shares of NVIDIA in a research report on Monday. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on NVIDIA from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Tigress Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $360.00 target price (up from $350.00) on shares of NVIDIA in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.73.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on NVDA

NVIDIA Stock Down 1.3%

The firm has a market cap of $5.38 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.37, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 2.25. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $192.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $188.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 3.91 and a quick ratio of 3.24.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The computer hardware maker reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.08. NVIDIA had a return on equity of 97.37% and a net margin of 55.60%.The firm had revenue of $68.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $65.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.89 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 73.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that NVIDIA Corporation will post 7.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NVIDIA Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th were paid a dividend of $0.01 per share. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 11th. NVIDIA’s payout ratio is 0.82%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Aarti S. Shah sold 19,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.71, for a total value of $3,357,490.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 36,007 shares in the company, valued at $6,362,796.97. This represents a 34.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Ajay K. Puri sold 300,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.25, for a total transaction of $54,675,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 3,018,547 shares in the company, valued at approximately $550,130,190.75. This represents a 9.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders sold 906,336 shares of company stock valued at $162,802,518. Corporate insiders own 4.17% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NVIDIA

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. acquired a new stake in shares of NVIDIA in the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Longview Financial Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of NVIDIA during the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC grew its holdings in shares of NVIDIA by 47.9% in the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 207 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Phillip James Consulting Co. purchased a new stake in shares of NVIDIA in the first quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC acquired a new stake in NVIDIA during the fourth quarter worth about $44,000. 65.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About NVIDIA

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NVIDIA Corporation, founded in 1993 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is a global technology company that designs and develops graphics processing units (GPUs) and system-on-chip (SoC) technologies. Co-founded by Jensen Huang, who serves as president and chief executive officer, along with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, NVIDIA has grown from a graphics-focused chipmaker into a broad provider of accelerated computing hardware and software for multiple industries.

The company’s product portfolio spans discrete GPUs for gaming and professional visualization (marketed under the GeForce and NVIDIA RTX lines), high-performance data center accelerators used for AI training and inference (including widely adopted platforms such as the A100 and H100 series), and Tegra SoCs for automotive and edge applications.