Raymond James Reaffirms Strong Buy on NVIDIA, $515 Price Target

Raymond James analyst Simon Leopold reiterated a Strong Buy rating and $515 price target on NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA).

“We maintain a Strong Buy rating on NVDA following reports of further indiscretions by its CEO and ahead of the November 17th earnings report. Tonight, several reports assert that Nvidia’s CEO had an affair with an Nvidia VP. We see modest risk to the fundamentals and believe the market overreacted to the recent U.S. elections.

While Jensen Huang has been a stand-out CEO closely associated with the company, we argue that Nvidia is more than just its CEO. The AI evolution continues and Nvidia remains an important player.

We doubt the distraction created by the CEO’s indiscretions alter the fundamentals for Nvidia’s business. The downside risk from potential increased export restrictions is modest considering the elevated demand across the market. We will await next week’s report to assess estimate revisions.

Our F3Q27 (October) estimates are slightly ahead of consensus, and we are at the high-end of consensus estimates for FY28/CY27. At the after-hours price, Nvidia trades at 9.7x our CY27 GAAP estimates, with sales growing over 70% and EPS growing over 60%.

Recent developments highlight Nvidia’s dependence on Jensen Huang and raise questions about succession planning. On November 8, the board announced an independent investigation, while expressing confidence in Huang and stating it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised.

Tonight, several sources reported that Nvidia’s CEO had an affair with an Nvidia VP that reports to him. Nvidia’s FY26 10-K acknowledges dependence on its longstanding executive team and the risks of inadequate succession planning. Its proxy describes management development and board engagement with senior executives, but identifies no CEO successor.

While succession oversight rests with the board, it is not required to publicly disclose a detailed plan. We believe Nvidia has considerable management depth, although it has limited investor engagement beyond Huang, and the CFO and IR team, which makes that depth difficult to assess.

We have favored Huang remaining at the helm, but recognize we lack the requisite information. Given the potential legal or compliance violations, we encourage greater transparency.”

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