Nvidia revenues point to the end of one year's revenue decline

Nvidia Corp predicted a return to revenue growth after four quarters of declines on Thursday afternoon and projected its quarterly results.

Nvidia

NVDA, + 0.58%

shares fluctuated between gains and losses after the release of the report and were last up below 1%. It may turn out to be a disappointment for option traders, who were hoping for a big turn anyway.

For the fourth quarter, Nvidia expects revenue of $ 2.89 billion to $ 3.01 billion, up from revenue of $ 2.21

billion a year ago, which will end four straight quarters of revenue declines. However, analysts had forecast a little more, with a $ 3.07 billion revenue consensus.

Nvidia started the current portion of quarterly sales declines in the fourth quarter a year ago thanks to lost sales from a recession in cryptocurrency mining, weak demand from China and a sudden decline in sales growth in the data center.

These falls continued in the fiscal third quarter, although they came closer to break-even than in previous periods. The company reported net income for the third quarter of $ 899 million, or $ 1.45 per share, compared to $ 1.23 billion, or $ 1.97 per share, the previous year. Adjusted earnings were $ 1.78 per share.

Revenue fell to $ 3.01 billion from $ 3.18 billion the year before. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had projected earnings of $ 1.58 for $ 2.92 billion in revenue.

Read: When will Nvidia introduce a new product for the data center?

The data center, Nvidia's second largest business, had annual sales of almost 10% in the first quarter and almost 14% in the second quarter. In the third quarter, they dropped 8% to $ 726 million, lower than the $ 759.1 million Wall Street consensus forecast. Gaming revenue, Nvidia's largest business, fell 6% to $ 1.66 billion, while Wall Street projected a decline of nearly 13% to $ 1.54 billion.

Nvidia shares rose 0.6% in the regular session to close at $ 209.79. By comparison, the PHLX Semiconductor Index

SOX, -0.30%

down 0.3%, S&P 500 index

SPX, + 0.08%

got 0.1% and the technically heavy Nasdaq Composite Index

COMP, -0.04%

fell less than 0.1%.

Of the 38 analysts covering Nvidia, 26 have buy or overweight, 9 have hold rating and three have sales or underweight, with an average price target of $ 203.53, according to FactSet data.