U.S. stocks ended with decline in February, the S&P 500 fell 2.61%, the Dow slid 4.19% and the Nasdaq shed 1.11%. For those S&P 500 companies, Catalent was the biggest winner which jumped 27.39% while Tesla rose over 18% ahead of its investor day.
The Madness of ChatGPT Cheered up Nvidia’s Stock
Nvidia reported Q4 net income of $1.41 billion, or 57 cents a share, compared with $3 billion, or $1.18 a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings were 88 cents a share, compared with $1.32 a share in the year-ago period. Revenue fell to $6.05 billion from $7.64 billion in the year-ago quarter.
It forecast Q1 revenue of $6.37 billion to $6.63 billion and expected gross margins of 66% to 67% for Q1.
Another thing to mention is that in late January, Microsoft announced a new investment into OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, as well as plans to deploy the startup's AI tech across its services, sparking a new wave of hype over artificial intelligence. This event helped cheer up Nvidia’s stock.
Tesla Posted 18.76% Monthly Gain Ahead of Its Investor Day
Tesla hosts its 2023 investor day at its Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. The company will unveil CEO Elon Musk's "Master Plan 3," geared to achieving large scale in vehicle and battery production. Analysts expect Musk to announce Tesla's cheapest model yet, starting at less than $30,000.
"We suspect his plan will tie together" with Tesla's 2016 Master Plan 2, mentioning robotaxis, shared rides to reduce driving miles, "megapack" batteries, and recycling targets, said Chris McNally, an analyst with Evercore ISI.
Tesla could also give investors hints about a new, cheaper EV platform, said Toni Sacconaghi at Bernstein.
Strong Financial Results Helped Meta Rise 17.43%
Meta reported Q4 revenue of $32.17 billion that topped the estimate of $31.53 billion, and earnings per share were $1.76.(Note: It reported restructuring charges for its Family of Apps segment and Reality Labs unit of $3.76 billion and $440 million, respectively in Q4. Because of those charges, it’s difficult to compare the company’s earnings per share to analyst estimates of $2.22 per share.)
It expects Q1 revenue of between $26 billion and $28.5 billion. Analysts were expecting sales of $27.1 billion, according to Refinitv.
The 46 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Meta Platforms Inc have a median target of 212.50, with a high estimate of 275.00 and a low estimate of 80.00. The median estimate represents a 24.71% increase from the last price of 170.40.