With the anticipation of NVIDIA's quarterly earnings results, what are the market expectations for profits and stock movements?

Investors are currently awaiting the quarterly earnings results for the third quarter - or the fourth quarter of the fiscal year in the United States - from the American semiconductor maker and the largest U.S. company by market value, Nvidia, later on Wednesday, following the close of trading on Wall Street this evening.

According to the market data analysis company ORATS, options contracts for Nvidia’s shares indicate potential volatility of up to 8.5% in the stock's movement - either up or down - after the earnings results are announced, which aligns with Nvidia’s performance after the regular announcement of results over the past twelve months.

The options contracts also suggest that the expected volatility in Nvidia’s stock (NASDAQ: NVDA) could reach nearly $292 billion in market capitalization, which exceeds the total market capitalization of 95% of the components of the S&P 500 index.

However, ORATS founder Matt Ambruson expects that the volatility Nvidia’s stock might experience after the earnings announcement could be lower than market expectations. He noted that volatility that exceeds estimates tends to occur when the stock price is rising.

Ambruson added that Nvidia has already exceeded market expectations in five of the last twelve quarters in which it announced its quarterly results, and all these exceedances led to increases in Nvidia's stock price.

Currently, analyst forecasts suggest that Nvidia’s quarterly sales are expected to rise by 82.8% year-on-year to between $33.0 billion and $33.3 billion, while earnings per share are expected to be $0.74, which is double the amount reported in the same period last year.

Also, Nvidia's net profits are expected to jump 88% year-on-year to $17.4 billion, and the gross profit margin for the chip design company is expected to drop to around 75%.

It is worth noting that Nvidia's stock has posted tremendous gains; it has risen by 196% since the beginning of the year to date, with a gain of 6.5% over the past month. The company's market capitalization now stands at $3.61 trillion, making it the largest public company in the U.S. by market capitalization, and the second largest company globally after Saudi Aramco, which has a market value of $6.78 trillion.