NVIDIA posts fiscal Q4 2010 profit of $131.1 million

Good news for NVIDIA they report a fiscal fourth quarter of 2009 ending Jan 2010 revenue of $982.5 million, a 9 percent quarter-over-quarter growth, and net income of $131.1 million, or 23 cents per share. In the same period a year earlier, the graphics giant recorded a net loss of 147.7 million.

The results are better than expected, as analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had anticipated earnings of 20 cents per share on a revenue of $957.2 million. For the current quarter, NVIDIA expects revenue will be flat from the fourth quarter, gross margin is expected to be in the range of 44 to 45 percent (vs 44.7 percent this quarter), and operating expenses are expected to be flat, at approx. $305 million.

Sales of GPUs rose 22 percent quarter-over-quarter, notebooks GPUs were the biggest sales driver with a growth of 27 percent, revenue of the Quadro GPUs shot up 25 percent, and desktop GPU revenue soared 19 percent.

The company also reveals that about 50 notebooks with the NVIDIA Optimus technology should be available by the summer, and that Volkswagen and Audi will start using next-gen Tegra chips in their cars in 2012.