Nvidia price target raised to $180 from $140 at Jefferies

Jefferies analyst Mark Lipacis raised his price target for Nvidia (NVDA) shares to $180 from $140 and his three-year bull case earnings per share estimate to $8.00 from $6.50.

The chipmaker closed Friday up $3.28 to $146.76. The company's decade long investment in its proprietary GPU-processing language has resulted in a multi-year competitive advantage that has yet to be fully appreciated by investors, Lipacis tells investors in a research note.

He sees Nvidia as a key beneficiary as the industry undergoes a "tectonic shift towards a parallel computing model." The analyst keeps a Buy rating on the shares.

Lipacis this morning also downgraded Intel (INTC) to Underperform and upgraded both Cavium (CAVM) and Xilinx (XLNX) to Buy.