Analysts slash Nvidia targets after Huang resigns as CEO

Wall Street lowered its expectations for Nvidia after Jensen Huang resigned as CEO on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. Analysts cut price targets, downgraded the stock and warned that the company's thin leadership bench could push staff out the door. CNBC reported that at least six analysts had downgraded the stock between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. CFO Colette Kress was named interim CEO, and shares fell more than 12% shortly after the open.cnbc.com

The departure came after The New York Times reported a second extramarital affair, this one with an employee. Huang had already admitted a relationship with a woman U.S. intelligence believes is a Chinese spy.cnbc.com

Targets slashed

Bernstein's Stacy Rasgon downgraded Nvidia to Market Perform from Outperform. He also halved his price target to $200 from $400. Rasgon doubted that engineers and executives who have already made a lot of money would stay as committed without Huang. "I'd rather watch the circus from outside the tent at this point," he said. Morningstar ↘ 1.03% cut its fair value estimate to $250 from $310. Analyst Brian Colello wrote that it was "unclear whether a new CEO leads to an exodus of talent".thestreet.com+1

Cantor Fitzgerald's C.J. Muse called it "A Very Sad Day" in a note. He cut his target to $250 from $350 and removed Nvidia from the firm's top picks list. Muse pointed to the company's lack of succession planning and listed risks including loss of talent, its supply-chain edge and pricing power with key customers. Evercore, Melius Research and Citi Citigroup Inc. ↘ 0.12% also lowered their targets.longbridge.com+2

Churn and a flat org chart

Patrick Moorhead, CEO and chief analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, told Bloomberg that Nvidia could see months of employee churn while the CEO search drags on.bloomberg.com

Experts also questioned the flat management structure Huang built. He said in a March interview that his "direct staff" numbered about 60 people. Jo-Ellen Pozner, a management professor at Santa Clara University, said that without Huang "there is likely nobody who is able to coordinate" across those executives. She called it "not an organizational structure that's built to last". Columbia Law School professor John C. Coffee Jr. described Nvidia as "an extraordinary flat organization with no intermediate senior executives". Fortune reported that the structure may have kept a pool of potential successors from forming.newsweek.com+2

What comes next

The board will consider internal and external candidates for the permanent job. It also named Harvey C. Jones as its first-ever chair. Some bulls are holding on. Morgan Stanley kept its Overweight rating and a $300 target. The next test is Nvidia's fiscal third-quarter report, due Tuesday, Nov. 17.cnbc.com+1