For the quarter, sales came out at $22.10 billion (vs. 20.55 estimated by consensus). GAAP earnings per diluted share were $4.93, up 33% on the previous quarter and 765% year-on-year. The consensus was for EPS of $4.22, a surprise rate of 17%. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share amounted to $5.16, up 28% on the previous quarter and 486% on last year.
For fiscal 2024, revenues increased by 126% to $60.9 billion. GAAP earnings per diluted share were $11.93, up 586% year-on-year. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $12.96, up 288% year-on-year.
Unsurprisingly, the Data Center segment accounted for virtually all growth. It posted growth of 409% year-on-year and 27% sequentially for the quarter, thanks to strong demand for the Nvidia Hopper GPU computing platform and InfiniBand solutions. More than half of Data Center revenues come from major cloud providers (Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, etc.). However, sales in China have fallen due to US government licensing requirements. This segment now accounts for 83% of the company's sales.
Meanwhile, the Gaming segment grew by 56% year-on-year, boosted by growing demand and the launch of the GeForce RTX 40 SUPER series. Professional Visualization was up 105% year-on-year, mainly due to increased sales to partners. Automotive was down slightly by 4% year-on-year, but up 8% sequentially, with growth driven by autonomous driving platforms.
Both GAAP (76%) and non-GAAP (76.7%) gross margins increased significantly, largely thanks to growth in Data Center revenues. Given Nvidia's current near-monopoly with the most powerful cards on the market, it can afford to set its prices. Demand is very strong, and Nvidia can be (for the time being) demanding of its customers in terms of invoicing lead times (cards are paid for straight from the factory).
GAAP operating expenses were up 23% year-on-year, mainly due to compensation costs and IT investments. Interest income rose, reflecting higher cash balances and increased yields. Net gains on unaffiliated investments also contributed to revenues.
The balance sheet shows cash and cash equivalents of $26.0 billion, up on the previous year. Operating cash flow for the quarter was $11.5 billion, up sharply on the previous year.
On the forecast side, for the first quarter of fiscal 2025, Nvidia expects sales of $24.0 billion and GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins of 76.3% and 77.0% respectively. GAAP and non-GAAP operating expenses are estimated at around $3.5 billion and $2.5 billion, and the GAAP and non-GAAP tax rate is expected to be 17.0%.
Nvidia will pay its next quarterly cash dividend of $0.04 per share on March 27, 2024 to all shareholders of record on March 6, 2024.
In short, everything seems to be running smoothly for Nvidia. The RTX solution, introduced less than 6 years ago, is now a massive PC platform for generative AI.
These results are reassuring not only for the semiconductor sector, but also for the entire stock market. Indeed, Nvidia is a symbol of growth, and weighs increasingly heavily in US and global indices. Anecdotally, Nvidia 's market capitalization now exceeds the GDP of Russia and Mexico.
The AI trend shows no signs of slowing down. In the words of Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia: "Accelerated computing and generative AI have reached a critical point. Demand is growing worldwide, across companies, sectors and countries".
At MarketScreener, we've been invested in Nvidia shares for several months now, through our USA investor portfolio.