Morgan Stanley restores Nvidia as its top semiconductor pick: “very favourable” rating, $300 target

The investment bank Morgan Stanley restored Nvidia on Friday as its “top pick” among semiconductor stocks, as Investor’s Business Daily reports. Analyst Joseph Moore took the decision after a meeting with Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, and chief financial officer Colette Kress to receive an update on the business’s performance. Nvidia shares rose after the news, by around 2% in pre-market trading, to $235.96.

According to MarketWatch’s reporting, the argument of Morgan Stanley’s analysts is that Nvidia remains very early in the growth phase of a new product cycle, and that constraints on power and on data-centre space play in favour of the company’s strengths. Moore stressed the diversity of Nvidia’s business beyond the big data-centre operators and artificial intelligence laboratories: around half of its revenue comes from other clients — artificial intelligence companies, sovereign clients, systems manufacturers and enterprise buyers.

The growth of agentic artificial intelligence is also a positive factor for Nvidia’s central and graphics processing units, according to the analyst’s note cited by TipRanks. “We certainly see Nvidia in a very good position, with a very favourable rating,” said Moore, who reiterated his “overweight” recommendation with a $300 price target — around 30% above current levels.

Morgan Stanley had first named Nvidia its “top pick” in March, but removed it six months later. The news comes after a busy week for the company: on Monday, Nvidia’s board authorised a record $150 billion increase in its share buyback programme, taking the total authorisation to $235 billion — the largest single increase ever recorded, above Apple’s $110 billion in 2024 — and the company is expected to execute the programme by the end of fiscal year 2028.