Nvidia Earnings, Revenue Nudge Past Estimates on Strong Graphics and Mobile Business

Nvidia on Thursday reported quarterly earnings that were just ahead of what analysts were expecting.

The chipmaker said it earned $178.3 million, or 29 cents per share, on revenue of $1.07 billion for the three months ended Oct. 30. Nvidia had been expected to post earnings of around 26 cents per share, on revenue of $1.06 billion, according to First Call.

For the current quarter, Nvidia said it sees its revenue staying roughly flat from the current quarter, give or take a percentage or two. Gross margins are expected to be steady or up half a percent.

“NVIDIA’s strategy is coming into its own, as the world becomes increasingly visual and mobile,” CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said in a statement. “Our GPU business accelerated in the third quarter, driven by strong demand from gamers and the professional market. And our mobile business benefited from new devices coming onto the market.”

Earlier this week, the company announced it is ready with its quad-core Tegra 3 chip, which will show up first in Asus’ Eee Pad Transformer Prime next month, and in other tablets and phones next year.

“With Tegra 3 phone wins well ahead of Tegra 2’s pace, we’re expecting strong growth in the year ahead,” Huang said.

For more on Nvidia, here’s what Huang had to say at our recent AsiaD conference: