Nvidia Has Beat The Street In Every Quarter Since 2011; How Do Rivals Measure Up?

NVIDIA Corporation NVDA reported February 9 fourth-quarter earnings and revenues that exceeded estimates, with the company posting record revenues for 2017. The company said deep learning on its GPUs, a novel approach to AI, is used in varied applications, ranging from self-driving cars, early cancer detection and weather prediction. Datacenter and gaming revenues rose notably.

Consistent Churner Of Upside Earnings Surprise

Based on data from StreetInsider.com, Nvidia has been consistently beating earnings estimates since the third quarter of 2010. That would mean 26 straight quarters of earnings outperformance. Has the company's successful execution got anything to do with industry-specific factors. If so, rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD and Intel Corporation INTC would have also capitalized. At least going by fundamentals, it doesn't look so.

AMD's Checkered History

AMD has had a stellar 2016, as it beat earnings estimates in each of the fourth quarters of 2016. Ahead of that, the company had reported either in line or below-consensus results for the seven quarter prior to that. In fact, the company's story began souring since 2006, as it faced intense competition from Intel in the traditional chip market and could not stand up against Nvidia in the graphics chips market.

Related Link: The Consensus On NVIDIA Is Still Pretty Positive

No Parallels Among Other Rivals

Intel, which cannot be termed as a direct competitor to Nvidia, has done better than AMD, as it has reported largely better than expected earnings. However, there has been exceptions, as it reported in line earnings per share in the first quarter of 2015 and second quarter of 2013. Intel, meanwhile, reported below-consensus earnings per share for the fourth quarter of 2014 and the first quarter of 2013.

Ambarella Inc AMBA, which competes with Nvidia in the market for chips for drones, driverless cars and other next-gen connected devices, comes close to its rival in its success with respect to delivering earnings surprise. Ambarella went public in October 2012, and in all the subsequent quarters as a public company, it had managed to beat earnings expectations (16 straight quarters).

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