NVIDIA posts third quarter profit of $84.9 million

NVIDIA announced a revenue of $843.9 million and net income of $84.9 million, or 15 cents per share, for its fiscal Q3 2011. Profit is down 21 percent year-over-year but the company did manage to beat analyst's expectations of earnings of 14 cents per share on revenue of $843.6 million. For the current quarter NVIDIA anticipates a 3 to 5 percent sequential increase in sales.
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) today reported revenue of $843.9 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2011 ended Oct. 31, 2010, up 4.0 percent from the prior quarter and down 6.6 percent from $903.2 million from the same period a year earlier.

On a GAAP basis, the company recorded net income of $84.9 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, compared with a GAAP net loss of $141.0 million, or $0.25 per share, in the previous quarter and GAAP net income of $107.6 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, in the same period a year earlier. GAAP gross margin was 46.5 percent compared with 16.6 percent in the previous quarter and 43.4 percent in the same period a year earlier.

"We have turned the corner," said Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA's president and chief executive officer. "We have restored our speed of execution and are regaining share in desktops. Only seven months after shipping our first processor based on the Fermi architecture, we have begun production on seven more GPUs, including the GeForce GTX 580, which sets a new standard for performance. The Fermi architecture is now in every segment of our desktop, notebook and workstation product lines.

"We've also made big strides this quarter in positioning ourselves at the center of cloud and mobile computing, which are transforming the computer landscape. Tesla now powers some of the world's fastest and greenest supercomputers. And Tegra will soon be featured in a range of smartphones and tablets we're building with our partners," he said.

Outlook
The outlook for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 is as follows:
-- Revenue is expected to be up 3 to 5 percent from the third quarter.
-- GAAP gross margin is expected to be flat.
-- GAAP operating expenses are expected to be approximately $300 million.
-- GAAP tax rate is expected to be 18 to 20 percent.