Nvidia reached record high of $640.95

(April 15) Nvidia rose more than 4%, reached record high of $640.95. Nvidia upgraded to strong buy from outperform at Raymond James.

Nvidia (NVDA) -Get Report shares rose Thursday after Raymond James upgraded the graphics-chip maker to strong buy from outperform and raised its price target to $750 from $700.

“Our call is not really new, as we’ve been positive on NVDA for some time,” Raymond James analyst Chris Caso wrote in a commentary.

Caso also downgraded Intel (INTC) -Get Report to underperform from market perform.

Regarding Nvidia, “Our call today rather is meant to express our conviction in both the short and long term. In the short term, we think results will be more dependent on supply than demand given widespread shortages. And we do expect incremental supply to become available as the year progresses.”

Further, “we think improvement in enterprise, driven by a return to the office as well as the A10 launch, could drive better data-center growth in the second half of the year, which is important for the stock,” Caso said.

Nvidia recently traded at $625.16, up 2.3%, and has gained 8% over the past six months.

“Our longer-term conviction is driven by the fact that NVDA has more shots on goal than anyone else in our coverage, and their success in [artificial intelligence] has earned them a permanent seat at the table in both hyperscale and enterprise computing.”

Nvidia said Monday thatit is offering its first server microprocessors, a move that will further heat up its rivalry with Intel.

“Intel’s stock has risen of late due to optimism that new leadership from their very capable new CEO will allow them to turn around their manufacturing issues and return to their former dominance,” he said.

“Our underperform rating reflects not just the risk that Intel won’t reach that goal, but also the pain they will likely endure in pursuit of that goal.”

Intel recently traded at $63.82, down 0.6%.