NVDA: Earnings date 2/8/18

NVDA announced yesterday that it will be reporting its Q4 financial results on 2/8/18.

I had noticed before that NVDA reports its results very quickly after the quarter ends. NVDA’s quarters do no end on the typical end of March, June, September, and December months. They are shifted by about 1 month. NVDA’s Q4 ends on January 28th this year. February 8th is 11 days after January 28th. That’s only 9 business days (8 days of preparation) between the end of the quarter and the reporting date. Most companies take much longer to report, and the fourth quarters are usually more effort because companies usually update the 10-Kwhich is more involved than the 10-Q. Looking at the other companies that I own as examples, here are the announced dates:


        Q end   Earnings date   Days between
SHOP    12/31   02/15           46
ANET    12/31   02/15           46
TLND    12/31   02/13           44
AYX     12/31   02/21           52
HUBS    12/31   02/13           44
WIX     12/31   02/14           45
NVDA    01/28   02/08           11

Now, we can see that NVDA reports very quickly after closing the books. Could it be that the other companies are just taking more of their allowed time or is NVDA just a lot faster and more efficient at completing all the activities? Is NVDA using computing and AI to a greater degree to complete the tasks needed to prepare? Does NVDA use AI in other areas of its operations? NVDA doesn’t have that many employees compared with similar companies. Below is a table with some metrics for NVDA and 2 competitors:


      Employees  Revenue*  GM   Operating Margin  Rev(9 mo)/Employee 
NVDA   10,300     $6803    59%  35.5%             $660K
INTC  106,000    $45708    64%  27.4%             $431K
AMD     8,200     $3849    34%   3.2%             $469K

*last 9 months

NVDA is a lot more efficient that its 2 competitors.

Chris

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This just does not make sense to me, 11 calendar days??? You do not just pull up records on a computer and expect them to be correct, people make entry errors, you must make spot checks (audit your own data internally) to veryify data, especially for a yr end report. Example, payroll payment and recordings (think sick leave, vacation pay use/accrual -both ends think usage and accrual etc) lag, peoples pay is 1 or 2 weeks after actual days worked. I could really go on with many examples of why this does not seem reasonable, the other companies lag periods to issue financial reports seems reasonable. Retired.

Now, we can see that NVDA reports very quickly after closing the books. Could it be that the other companies are just taking more of their allowed time or is NVDA just a lot faster and more efficient at completing all the activities? Is NVDA using computing and AI to a greater degree to complete the tasks needed to prepare? Does NVDA use AI in other areas of its operations? NVDA doesn’t have that many employees compared with similar companies. Below is a table with some metrics for NVDA and 2 competitors:

Even if that were the case, you still need to go through the year-end statutory audit which I doubt is ever done that fast. And it is not just in the US, almost every foreign Subsidiary also goes through a year-end audit as well. Not that they all have to complete before the US audit depending on the size but something in the timing seems wrong. Either the announce date or the year-end date.

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Maybe NVidia’s AI is helping out…could be something to the thought.

JohnSpok, I have the opposite reaction. I used to sell ERP software and the companies that use my software had final figures for any accounting period within days of the end of the period because they had accurate figures every day during the period. Those that were audited would possibly keep things open for the duration of the audit, but frankly it was rare for the auditors to come up with any changes … if they found an issue one year, we would develop a new report within days that controlled for that issue throughout the coming year so it was never an issue for the next year. Indeed, my issue is why it takes some of these companies to take so long to come up with figures and why they make as many corrections as they do.

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This next earnings for NVDA might yet be the most anticipated ER for me ever… I have a bigger stake in NVDA than ever before, and I am all-in (at least as much as I’m willing to, which for me is now 12.7% of everything and growing, even though I had intended for it to be <10%).

If it goes up, I have to try to override the “trim it back” voice in my head again; if it goes down, I have to try to resist the urge to load up on more. Or not. They have such a compelling story in SO many areas, it’s hard not to want to add more.

It’s fun when you can measure something like “every 1% gain in NVDA equals a $xxxxxx gain in my portfolio” or “every 1% means I can retire XX months/years earlier.” :slight_smile: But I also know that can change…

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