Nvidia Corporation (Nvidia (NVDA)) shares are soaring ahead of first-quarter earnings, as CEO Jensen Huang travels to China with President Donald Trump. The stock hit a new all-time high of $236.47 during Thursday's trading session, up 3.6% to $233.95. Year-to-date, Nvidia is up 24.4%.
One analyst thinks the rally is just getting started. Cantor Fitzgerald's CJ Muse reiterated an Overweight rating on Nvidia and raised his price target from $300 to $350 — implying about 49% upside from current levels.
Muse used a colorful analogy from the poker movie "Rounders" to make his point: "Nyet, nyet. He (Jensen) beat me (everyone) straight up, pay that man his money (multiple)." In the film, the line comes when a player realizes he's been outplayed. Here, Muse acknowledges Nvidia has won the AI chip game and deserves a higher valuation multiple.
The analyst believes Nvidia's compute supply is sold out for both 2026 and 2027. "We believe there is clear support for a vision for Y/Y growth at NVDA through 2028-2029 at a minimum," Muse wrote.
He noted that fears of competition have compressed Nvidia's multiple to an "incredibly low" 14x calendar year 2027 estimates. His new $350 target is based on 22x to 23x calendar year 2027 earnings per share estimates of $15 to $16.
Muse expects Nvidia to report a beat and raise on May 20, along with evidence of sustained strong demand in the AI cycle. "Any real positive momentum in shares will lead to meaningful upside — our only question is when (not if)," he said.
Token demand from AI leaders like Anthropic and OpenAI points to compute demand remaining robust and supply likely tight, according to Muse. He said this demand also confirms a strong return on invested capital for AI investments.
