This is why Nvidia stock trades lower today: Citi

Investing.com -- Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA )'s stock is trading lower Thursday premarket, currently down around 2.9%, despite the company's "beat and raise" quarterly results after the bell on Wednesday.

Nvidia reported July-quarter sales of $30 billion, hitting the high end of its $29-$30 billion guidance range, and provided an October-quarter guidance midpoint of $32.5 billion, aligning with expectations of $32-$33 billion.

While management expressed confidence in the upcoming Blackwell GPU ramp, which is expected to generate several billion dollars in sales in the January quarter, Citi analysts explained in a note Thursday that concerns about the company's gross margin mix have weighed on the stock.

Citi's analysts highlighted that the higher mix of H200 GPUs and High Bandwidth (NASDAQ:BAND ) Memory (HBM) in Nvidia's product lineup is contributing to lower gross margins over the next two quarters.

Specifically, they state that the increased memory and associated costs of the H200 GPUs are pulling down non-GAAP gross margins as the product ramps up.

The analysts noted that while the January-quarter earnings per share (EPS) estimate remains unchanged, the broader market might revise expectations downward due to the gross margin pressure.

"We expect the stock to likely remain range bound through the next two quarters before Blackwell driven Y/Y sales and gross margin inflection in the Apr-Q," writes Citi.

The inflection point in year-over-year sales and gross margins starting in the April quarter is expected to be driven by the full-scale production and sales of Blackwell GPUs.

"CES Jan is the next major catalyst for the stock," the bank adds.

Despite the near-term margin pressures, Citi maintains a Buy rating on Nvidia, with a price target of $150, based on a consistent 35x price-to-earnings ratio for calendar year 2025 EPS, underscoring their long-term confidence in Nvidia's leadership in the AI and data compute markets.

Source: Investing.com