Domestic investors investing in overseas stocks have once again turned their eyes to artificial intelligence (AI) leader NVIDIA (NVDA). As NVIDIA's stock price fluctuated due to results that did not fully meet the market's high expectations and news of China's development of its own AI chips, it seems they viewed this as a buying opportunity.
According to the Korea Securities Depository (KSD) on the 5th, domestic investors purchased NVIDIA shares worth $232.06 million (approximately 323.4 billion won) over the past two weeks (from Aug. 21 to Sept. 3, based on settlement date). This was the largest net purchase among overseas stocks. Compared to the second-place company, Bitmain Immersion Technologies (BMNR), which was bought for $123.99 million (approximately 172.8 billion won), this amount is about twice as much.
The recent stock of interest for overseas individual investors was UnitedHealth Group (UNH). The news that Berkshire Hathaway, led by 'the Oracle of Omaha,' Warren Buffett, made purchases had a significant impact. Domestic investors purchased the most UnitedHealth Group shares worth $258.59 million (approximately 360.4 billion won) from early last month to the 20th, while the net purchase amount for NVIDIA during the same period was only 37.8 billion won.
The mood changed when NVIDIA's stock price dropped below the $180 mark after the 18th of last month (local time). There were two main reasons for this. Although NVIDIA's financial results for the second quarter (May-July) released on the 28th of last month generally exceeded market expectations, the poor performance of the data center institutional sector was highlighted. Additionally, the impact of the Trump administration's sanctions against China meant that sales of the H20 chip in China were not reflected.
Furthermore, news that Alibaba, one of NVIDIA's largest customers in China, is developing and testing next-generation AI chips has weighed on the stock price. Concerns have grown that NVIDIA's position in the Chinese market may narrow as tensions between the U.S. and China remain unresolved.
However, many in the securities industry remain optimistic, like the overseas individual investors who seized this as a 'buying opportunity.' The main factors include NVIDIA's solid performance and guidance (3rd quarter revenue of $54 billion) despite excluding Chinese data center sales during this second-quarter earnings announcement and the trend of major cloud corporations adopting NVIDIA's Blackwell platform as a long-term growth driver.
Kim Young-geon, a researcher at Mirae Asset Securities, noted, 'NVIDIA's guidance for the third quarter this year does not include sales related to the H20, and if geopolitical issues are resolved, additional revenues of between $2 billion and $5 billion could occur,' adding that 'the strong demand from client firms is now confirmed to offset the decrease in the Chinese market.'
Currently, the average target price for NVIDIA from 65 institutions worldwide is $206.72. This is 20.42% higher than the previous closing price of $171.66. After the announcement of NVIDIA's second-quarter results, Bernstein and JPMorgan adjusted their target prices to $225 and $215, respectively.
However, short-term stock price volatility may increase. Back Ki-hyun, a researcher at Yuanta Securities Korea, stated that 'recent valuations based on the price-to-earnings ratio (PER) are at 38 to 41 times, positioning near the upper limit of historical bands, suggesting that stock price volatility may widen depending on macroeconomic indicators,' but added, 'Despite this, the global data infrastructure investment is projected to expand to $4 trillion by 2030, indicating that related market growth benefits are expected to continue in the medium to long term.'