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After a record $4.33 billion in profit last year, analysts on average expect annual earnings to near $7 billion this year, according to FactSet.
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Before the fiscal year that ended with January 2017, Nvidia never reported $1 billion in annual profit, but in the past five full fiscal years, it has totaled nearly $16 billion in GAAP profit. Analysts expect Nvidia will surpass $20 billion in annual sales for the first time in the current fiscal year, with the average estimate currently sitting at $22.42 billion, according to FactSet. In the fiscal year that most closely mirrors the 2007 calendar year, the last in which a stock split occurred, Nvidia reported sales of $4.1 billion.
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In its most recent full fiscal year, which ended at the end of January, Nvidia recorded sales of $16.68 billion, nearly $5 billion more than it had ever recorded in a year previously. Nvidia’s revenue has shown the effects as well. The chip maker’s core product - graphics-processing units, or GPUs - were known mostly for their ability to juice the appearance and playability of videogames the last time the shares were split, but since have been found to also accelerate machine learning. Nvidia’s sudden rise has mostly taken place in the past five years, with the stock gaining about 1,260% in that time as Nvidia has proved to be an essential company in the realm of artificial intelligence. Has increased 183% on a price-return basis, according to Dow Jones Market Data group. Since that last split, Nvidia shares have increased 1,640.7% in the same period, the S&P 500 index Nvidia split its stock four times between 20, but never as large as the 4-to-1 split proposed Friday the other splits were 2-to-1 in 2000, 20, and 3-to-2 in 2007.
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