NVIDIA had record Q3 revenue, starts paying dividend

NVIDIA announced its third quarter revenue totaled a record $1.2 billion, a increase of 12.9 percent versus Q3 2011. Net income come in at $209 million, or 33 cents a share, up 17.3 percent from $178 million, or 29 cents a share, in the same quarter last year.

The company's Tegra unit grew 27.6 percent year-over-year and with a revenue of $243.9 million it now accounts for a fifth of NVIDIA's business. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang attributes the success of the Tegra to the changing computer landscape, claiming that consumers now buy a "great tablet" rather than a "cheap PC".

Sales of consumer GPUs rose 14.7 percent year-over-year to $739.6 million as the company managed to capture marketshare from AMD, but sales of NVIDIA's Quadro and Tesla cards fell 4.2 percent year-over-year. Huang said the workstation market is having a weakness, but added that sales of Tesla for HPC servers are doing pretty well.

The bad news however is the outlook for the current quarter, NVIDIA expects revenue will be between $1.025 billion and $1.175 billion due to sluggish PC sales and a seasonal dip in smartphone and tablet shipments.

Surprisingly, NVIDIA also announced it will start paying a quarterly dividend of 7.5 cents a share.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA)

Record revenue of $1.20 billion.

GAAP net income was $209.1 million, or $0.33 per diluted share. Non-GAAP net income was $245.5 million, or $0.39 per diluted share.

GAAP gross margin was a record 52.9 percent. Non-GAAP gross margin was a record 53.1 percent.

NVIDIA initiated quarterly dividend of 7.5 cents a share.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) today reported record revenue of $1.20 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2013 ended Oct. 28, 2012, up 15.3 percent from the previous quarter and up 12.9 percent from a year earlier.

The company also announced that it is initiating the payment of a quarterly cash dividend, and extending its existing $2.7 billion share-repurchase program, initiated in August 2004, through December 2014.

"Investments in our new growth strategies paid off this quarter in record revenues and margins," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer of NVIDIA. "Kepler GPUs are winning across the special-purpose PC markets we serve, from gaming to design to supercomputing. And Tegra is powering some of the most innovative tablets, phones and cars in the market."

He continued: "We are pleased to start paying our shareholders a quarterly cash dividend. We have confidence in our businesses and our continued ability to grow. Given our strong financial position and ongoing ability to generate cash, we are well positioned to continue investing in our future."