We recently published a list of 10 AI Stocks to Watch on Latest News and Analyst Ratings. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Bentley Systems, Incorporated (NASDAQ:BSY) stands against other AI stocks to watch on latest news and analyst ratings.
AI discussion boards online are buzzing with a new development where tech experts are pointing to a possible plateauing of performance in artificial intelligence applications.
CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa in a latest program quoted tech investor Ben Horowitz, who said in a recent podcast that he’s not seeing performance improvement despite increasing GPUs.
“We’re increasing GPUs at the same rate, but we’re not getting the intelligence improvements at all out of it.”
OpenAI is reportedly facing similar problems with its upcoming AI model.
“The Information reports that the quality increase in OpenAI’s upcoming advanced model, Orion, is smaller than the jump seen between the last two flagship models, GPT-3 and GPT-4. In other words, generational advancements may have peaked as the models are essentially running out of data to train on,” Bosa said.
While the next jump in AI performance is far away in the future, the possibilities this technology has unlocked based on the existing data and resources are keeping investors and Wall Street analysts busy.
READ ALSO: Jim Cramer’s Latest Lightning Round: 11 Stocks to Watch and Jim Cramer on AMD and Other Stocks.
In this article we take a look at top AI stocks trending on the back of latest news and analyst ratings. With each stock we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
Bentley Systems Inc (NASDAQ:BSY)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 25
KeyBanc’s capital markets research team sees potential upside for software stocks following Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election.
“With Donald Trump as president, we see a likely backdrop of lower corporate taxes, which would be broadly positive for high-tax-paying companies within our coverage,” KeyBanc stated.
The firm published a list of stocks it’s watching following Trump’s victory. BSY is part of this list.
Bentley Systems Inc (NASDAQ:BSY) makes software solutions for infrastructure projects, civil engineering, architecture, and construction. Bentley Systems Inc (NASDAQ:BSY) has strong secular growth catalysts. As companies look to cut costs, the demand for Bentley Systems Inc (NASDAQ:BSY)’s software systems is increasing. The global engineering software market was valued at $33 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach nearly $131 billion by 2030, reflecting a robust 18.8% CAGR.
Despite this, the stock’s valuation has been a concern for investors. It’s trading at a forward P/E of about 45 compared with the industry median of 23. The stock has a forward EV/Sales multiple of approximately 12.1x, with an estimated next twelve months (NTM) revenue growth rate of 11.2%. This contrasts with the median implied annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth rate of about 18% from the Meritech SaaS Index. As of June 21, 2024, the median forward EV/Revenue multiple for publicly held SaaS application software companies, according to the Meritech Capital Index, was around 5.4x. This means the stock is currently overvalued based on its growth projections.
Artisan Small Cap Fund stated the following regarding Bentley Systems, Incorporated (NASDAQ:BSY) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“We ended our investment campaigns in Bentley Systems, Incorporated (NASDAQ:BSY) and Etsy during the quarter. Bentley Systems is the leading provider of engineering software used to design roads, bridges, tunnels, rail systems and other public works. Construction is one of the economy’s least digitized verticals, and our thesis was based on the view that there are significant opportunities for software to increase productivity within civil engineering projects. We also viewed the company as well positioned to support the infrastructure spending encouraged by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. After a successful multiyear investment campaign, we decided to exit the position due to the market cap outgrowing our small-cap mandate.”
Overall, BSY ranks 10th on our list of AI stocks to watch on latest news and analyst ratings. While we acknowledge the potential of BSY, our conviction lies in the belief that under the radar AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than BSY but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
