Nvidia's shares are down ahead of earnings, after reaching its all ...

Ahead of its highly anticipated first quarter earnings report, Nvidia’s share price was down 0.6% at around $947 Wednesday morning, after closing at a record-high $953.86 the day before. But the chipmaking giant has seen this before.

Before the chipmaker last reported fourth quarter earnings in February, it saw its worst day on the stock market since October 2023, and lost $78 billion in market value the day before its earnings report. Nvidia’s shares rebounded after it reported revenues of $22 billion — up nearly 270% from the previous year, and beating expectations. The chipmaker’s stock price has mostly rallied since its fourth quarter earnings report, and is up 204% over the past year.

After the chipmaker unveiled its newest chip, Blackwell, in March, Wall Street’s expectations are high for the firm’s earnings report. But some analysts are wary of a pause in orders of Nvidia’s current chips before the eventual shipments of Blackwell.

Nvidia’s Hopper chips, the Blackwell predecessor behind some of the world’s most powerful artificial intelligence models, have propelled the company to become the first chipmaker to reach a $2 trillion market cap in February, and the third most valuable company in the world in March.

Wall Street is setting its expectations for the company to report first quarter revenue at $24.5 billion, according to a FactSet poll of analysts’ estimates. KeyBanc equity research analyst John Vinh said Nvidia is likely to report its first quarter revenue closer to $26 billion, and set its second quarter guidance to around $28.5 billion.

“Despite anticipation of next-generation Blackwell GPUs [graphics processing units] in the second half, we see limited signs of a demand pause and expect Nvidia to report first-quarter results and second-quarter guidance meaningfully above expectations,” Vinh wrote in a research note last week.

Research analysts at Bank of America Global Research said in a note last week it expects strength from Nvidia’s earnings report, and for the company’s “stock to be volatile near-term,” due to factors such as “quarterly deceleration ahead of Blackwell” and greater dependence from China.

Harsh Kumar, an analyst at Piper Sandler, also said investors can expect a strong showing from Nvidia’s first quarter earnings.

“We continue to see strong demand for NVDA’s data center products and feel the company is set up for another beat and raise quarter,” Kumar wrote in a note last week, according to TipRanks. “Demand for Hopper GPUs remains strong with supply still working to catch up to demand as the product is still on allocation. Our checks indicate that demand for the Blackwell GPU series is also set to be strong across NVDA’s data center customer base.”

Meanwhile, analysts at Citi said in a note last week it expects “smaller beats vs the prior few quarters on larger numbers, shorter H100 lead times, and gross margin normalization before GB200 volume ramps in 1H25,” according to Investing.com. Citi analysts also noted a “potential air pocket” in demand for Nvidia’s chips as the company prepares to release its new Blackwell processors, and analysts at Morgan Stanley wrote in note to clients this week “there is anxiety [on Wall Street] about a pause in front of Blackwell,” the Financial Times reported.