Nvidia will be the last of the Magnificent Seven companies to report earnings for the third quarter, delivering results after the bell on Wednesday. To say the stakes are high would be an understatement.
Investors are highly anxious heading into the report as the broader AI trade has come under pressure in the last month. The chip titan’s stock is still up 37% year-to-date, but it has fallen by about 5% in the last five days.
Its decline has led the broader tech sector lower, and investors are increasingly questioning whether the premium valuations commanded by top AI names are justified.
The implications of Nvidia’s coming earnings report are significant, not just for Nvidia but for many of its tech peers. Valuations, concerns about returns on AI capex, and the overall demand picture for expensive GPUs are top of mind for investors. Meanwhile, SoftBank and Thiel Macro, the hedge fund of Peter Thiel, have sold off their entire Nvidia stakes recently, while “The Big Short” investor Michal Burry has revealed he’s betting against it.
Wall Street analysts, however, seem more bullish than their buyside peers. The mood heading into the report is bullish, and banks expect Nvidia to continue dominating the AI hardware trade in the coming quarters.
Wall Street estimates that Nvidia will report about $55 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $1.25 for the third quarter. Revenue in its key data center unit is expected to be about $49 billion.
Here’s what analysts are saying ahead of the highly anticipated report.
Bank of America
Bank of America still sees Nvidia as undervalued relative to its dominance of AI hardware. Analyst Vivek Arya reaffirmed a buy rating and updated the bank’s forecast to reflect that his team has updated its per-share estimates for the coming fiscal year to $4.56, $7.02, and $9.15 per share.
While Arya notes that Nvidia may flick at a complicated macro outlook in the earnings call, he expects the micro outlook to remain solid. Additionally, his team is optimistic that Nvidia’s product pipeline, the Blackwell, Blackwell Ultra, and Vera Rubin chips, will help drive growth in 2026.
“NVDA valuation remains compelling at 27x/21x PE our CY26/27E, essentially a market multiple for the leading franchise in the fastest growth cycle globally trading ~0.6x CY27 PEG on ~40% EPS growth vs. SPX ~2x. Our $275 PO is now based on 30x CY27E vs. 44x CY26E as we extend model forward.”
The bank maintains a bullish price target of $270, implying a gain of about 50%.
UBS
UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri predicts that Nvidia’s revenue will come in slightly above Wall Street estimates at $56 billion. His team predicts Nvidia’s calendar EPS will reach $7.75 per share in 2026 and could go as high as $9.50 per share in 2027.
Arcuri noted that while some investors have expressed concern regarding Nvidia’s gross margins, UBS is confident that the company can keep margins high, forecasting 73.5% for Q3 and 75% for Q4.
“A big focus of the call will clearly be how quickly all of this AI infrastructure can be installed and any customer concentration risks that may develop.”
The analyst urged investors to “stay the course” with Nvidia stock, maintaining a price target of $230, 28% higher than current levels.
DA Davidson
In DA Davidson’s Nvidia earnings preview, analyst Gill Luria made it clear that his team doesn’t think AI demand is set to slow in the coming year.
He said that despite negative speculation and jitters around valuations, the firm believes Nvidia will maintain its dominance, even if competition rises and trade tensions with China persist.
“We would point towards recent guidance given by management during NVIDIA GTC D.C. that has Blackwell/Rubin generations amounting to $500B of revenue off of 20M GPUs sold with 30% of that already being shipped,” Luria stated.
Davidson has a $250 price target for Nvidia, valuing the stock at 42 times estimated 2026 earnings and implying a jump of about 39%.
CFRA Research
CFRA Research also expects Nvidia to beat estimates and point to more progress to come in 2026.
In its earnings preview, CFRA forecasts 18% year-over-year growth and 18% quarterly acceleration, the highest since early 2024. It maintains that Nvidia will need to post revenue of $61 billion and EPS of $1.42 for the January quarter, which its analysts think is achievable.
“We believe consensus long-term projections remain reasonable, while NVDA’s valuation at about 22x CY 27 basis is enticing given growth prospects and management’s blue sky TAM vision of $3T-$4T by decade’s end,” stated equity analyst Angelo Zino.
CFRA reiterates its strong buy rating for Nvidia and maintains its bullish $270 price target.
Deepwater Asset Management
Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, says Wall Street might actually be underestimating Nvidia’s strength. He’s bullish on the chip company, despite recent downbeat sentiment from investors.
In his Nvidia earnings preview, Munster noted that he believed some Wall Street analysts are not properly accounting for CEO Jensen Huang’s positive projections for its 2026 product lineup, and are not factoring in his most recent comments on soaring demand and a surge in orders for its GPUs. Jensen Huang said at the company’s recent GTC conference that Nvidia had booked $500 billion of orders in 2025 and 2026.
“Jensen gave a Blackwell and Rubin revenue target that suggested there is more than 10% upside through the end of CY26. I expect CY26 revenue forecasts to increase from the current 39% outlook to 45%,” Munster said.
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