Nvidia delivered lower than expected revenues for its fiscal fourth quarter to end 27 January, capping what was otherwise a strong performance for the year. CEO Jensen Huang talked about a “turbulent close to what had been a great year” and attributed the “disappointing” quarter to its post-crypto excess channel inventory, combined with the recent deteriorating end-market conditions. Huang stressed however that Nvidia’s fundamentals remained strong, as do the markets where the company operates, and that Nvidia fully expects to return to sustained growth and is keeping its dividend at USD 0.16 per share, for distribution in March.
Revenues for the quarter fell 24 percent from the year before to USD 2.21 billion, the gross margin fell to 54.7 percent from 61.9 percent and the net profit halved to USD 567 million or USD 0.92 per diluted share, from 1.118 billion. The company said it returned USD 1.95 billion to shareholders in fiscal 2019, through buybacks and dividend distributions. The company raised its quarterly dividend and increased its share buyback programme after its strong third quarter. Of the USD 3.0 billion Nvidia said it would return to shareholders by the end of fiscal 2020, USD 700 million worth of buybacks were completed in Q4 of fiscal 2019.
For the full year, revenues lifted 21 percent year-on-year to a record USD 11.716 billion, with record revenue from Gaming, Datacenter, Professional Visualization and Automotive. The gross margin advanced to 61.2 percent form 59.9 percent and the net profit increased 36 percent to USD 4.141 billion, with diluted EPS going higher to USD 6.63 from 4.82.
Looking towards the first quarter of fiscal 2020, Nvidia is guiding for revenues a bit higher year-on-year, at USD 2.20 billion, plus or minus 2 percent. The gross margin is seen at 58.8 percent, plus or minus 50 basis points. For fiscal 2020, revenue is expected to be flat to down slightly.
