Nvidia (NVDA) stock rose 1.7% Tuesday, as Wall Street analysts maintained their bullish outlooks despite potential regulatory risks and tariff headwinds.
The stock had fallen as much as 3% earlier in the day as the Trump administration’s new tariffs dragged markets. President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports on Tuesday and a 10% duty on Chinese imports.
While semiconductors aren’t directly affected by the new tariffs, Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon wrote in a February analysis when news of the tariffs first emerged that the duties would affect imports of data processing equipment, such as servers using AI chips. For example, Nvidia customer and contract manufacturer Foxconn is reportedly building the world’s largest factory for assembling servers with Nvidia’s Blackwell AI chips in Mexico, one of the three countries hit by tariffs. Higher prices of those products could reduce demand and indirectly affect chip sales.
Nvidia on Monday tumbled 8.7% to close at its lowest level since September. The drop followed a report from the Wall Street Journal that its latest Blackwell AI GPUs are reaching China despite export controls, reigniting investor fears of a further tightening of US trade restrictions on the chips.
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Yet, Wall Street analysts at Citi, Bernstein, and Wedbush maintained their Buy ratings on Nvidia stock after Monday’s sell-off.
Wedbush’s Dan Ives wrote in a note “that Trump takes an aggressive approach to China, chip export controls, and broader global policy.” But he called Nvidia’s decline a buying opportunity.
This, he added, will be an “uncomfortable time for growth investors … but ultimately this is not the time to run for the hills in the tech trade and instead own these tech AI winners.” Ives maintained his $175 price target on Nvidia.
From Bernstein’s Rasgon today: While Nvidia’s stock has been “battered by a storm of growth fears, supply chain noise, and tariff and regulatory risks,” the company’s China sales account for a decreasing share of overall revenue.
He noted that “NVDA’s China sales, while reaching record levels (~$17B in FY25), are at the lowest % of revenue (13%) in the last 10 years,” softening the blow of any potential future stiffening of export controls.
“[W]orries that the AI trade is ‘over’ feel a little premature to us, and [Nvidia’s] valuation is getting increasingly attractive,” he wrote, maintaining his $185 price target.
Citi analyst Atif Malik also maintained his Buy rating on Nvidia and $163 price target, writing in a note to investors Tuesday of the stock’s sell-off, “While risk-reward looks attractive on the stock with stock trading below historical troughs, we believe investors are looking for the clearance event on the overhang from the AI restrictions and tariff impact to gross margins.”
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