Nvidia Showered With Bull Notes Ahead of Earnings

NVDA has doubled off its June bottom

While sector peer Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) climbs the charts, fellow chip name Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) has turned in an impressive run of its own. Today, the shares are up 0.7% to trade at $269.68, after receiving three price-target hikes between last night and this morning. The highest comes from Jefferies, who bumped its target up to a Street-high $315 from $255 and waxed optimistic about the company's fourth-quarter earnings report, set for after-the-close tomorrow, Feb. 13.

NVDA remains a chip-shot away from yesterday's record high of $272.50. Since a June 3 bottom at $132, the shares have more than doubled, carving out a channel of higher highs guided by their ascending 40-day moving average. The stock remains ripe for more bull notes too; its consensus 12-month price target of $255.78 was a 4.5% discount to last night's closing perch at $267.89.

Digging into Nvidia's earnings history, the stock has closed lower the day after reporting in five of the past eight quarters, including a 2.7% drop last November. During this time frame, the chip stock has averaged a 5.8% swing, regardless of direction. This time around, the options market is estimating a much larger-than-usual 11.2% move for Friday's trading.

It's worth noting that the semiconductor stock has tended to make bigger moves than what the options market has priced in, looking back 12 months. This is per NVDA's Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS), which sits at a relatively high 89 out of a possible 100.