Warranty Costs Hurt Nvidia’s Earnings

Article Excerpt

NVIDIA CORP. $13 (Nasdaq symbol NVDA; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 556.6 million; Market cap: $7.2 billion; WSSF Rating: Average) lost $0.22 a share (total $120.9 million) in the three months ended July 27, 2008. That’s mainly because Nvidia had to expand its provision for warranty costs due to defects with certain graphic chips. These chips use older technology than Nvidia’s newer models, so these problems should not affect future earnings. If you exclude all non-recurring items, Nvidia would have earned $0.13 a share ($74.5 million) in the latest quarter. That’s 61.8% less than the $0.34 a share ($198.1 million) it earned in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue fell 4.6%, to $892.7 million from $935.3 million, mainly due to weaker demand for desktop computers. Nvidia continues to spend about 20% of its revenue on research. This will help it maintain its leading share of the graphic chip market. It also plans to buy back $2.7 billion worth of its…