ClearBridge Investments, an investment management firm, published its “Large Cap Growth Strategy” first quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. The ClearBridge Large Cap Growth Strategy underperformed its Russell 1000 Growth Index benchmark during the first quarter. On an absolute basis, the Strategy had gains across four of the eight sectors in which it was invested (out of 11 sectors total). You can view the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a peek at their top bets for 2021.
ClearBridge Investments, in its Q1 2021 investor letter, mentioned ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ: ASML), and shared their insights on the company. ASML Holding N.V. is a Veldhoven, Netherlands-based semiconductor company that currently has a $290.3 billion market capitalization. Since the beginning of the year, ASML delivered a 42.50% return, extending its 12-month gains to 108.78%. As of June 09, 2021, the stock closed at $682.59 per share.
Here is what ClearBridge Investments has to say about ASML Holding N.V. in its Q1 2021 investor letter:
“Within IT, we have also increased exposure to a cyclical semiconductor industry currently working through a severe supply shortage due to several years of capacity reductions, COVID-19 shutdowns and one-off production delays as well as demand resilience in areas like autos and smartphones. Two recent additions (including), semiconductor capital equipment firm ASML were among the portfolio’s leading contributors in the first quarter. ASML, which operates in a virtual monopoly for high-end chipmaking equipment, began to exert pricing power as it works through an order backlog that has stretched to over a year. Both are Dutch-based companies and out-of-benchmark names that provide access to different growth profiles than are available in the U.S.”
Our calculations show that ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ: ASML) does not belong in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As of the end of the first quarter of 2021, ASML Holding N.V. was in 35 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 30 funds in the fourth quarter of 2020. ASML delivered a 27.72% return in the past 3 months.
The top 10 stocks among hedge funds returned 231.2% between 2015 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 Index ETFs by more than 126 percentage points. We know it sounds unbelievable. You have been dismissing our articles about top hedge fund stocks mostly because you were fed biased information by other media outlets about hedge funds’ poor performance. You could have doubled the size of your nest egg by investing in the top hedge fund stocks instead of dumb S&P 500 ETFs. Here you can watch our video about the top 5 hedge fund stocks right now. All of these stocks had positive returns in 2020.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
