We recently published a list of 10 AI Stocks Taking Wall Street by Storm. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) stands against other AI stocks taking Wall Street by storm.
According to a recent Reuters report, the U.S. will empower tech giants to act as gatekeepers worldwide in its latest efforts to tighten its grip on global AI chip access. The move aims to effectively tighten restrictions, hindering China’s ability to acquire critical resources for developing its own AI capabilities.
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The scheme, which could be released this month, would require the companies to comply with strict requirements. This involves reporting key information to the US government and blocking Chinese access to AI chips. According to sources, doing so will allow them to offer artificial intelligence capabilities within the cloud overseas without a license.
While the government is keen on making tech giants gatekeepers, news reported by the Financial Times reveals how Blue Whale Capital investment fund has reduced its stakes in major US technology companies amid concerns about the costs of artificial intelligence. Besides one chip-maker tech giant out of the Mag 7, the fund is increasingly less positive on the rest of the Magnificent Seven tech stocks because of spending on AI, as reported by fund manager Stephen Yiu.
Even though tech giants are adamant that their spending is going to pay off in the long run, the move implies how not everyone is easily convinced. Jim Tierney, a growth stock investor at AllianceBernstein, noted how all of these companies, who are reportedly spending huge amounts of money, will have a hit to their profit margins. This hit is going to be even more noticeable in 2025.
In this regard, a report by The New York Times reveals how OpenAI could reportedly see a loss as big as $5 billion. The company’s largest expense comes from the computing power provided by its key partner and major investor, whose cloud services power its products. Analysts have been skeptical of such investments and wonder whether they will be able to garner returns.
Jim Covello, Goldman Sachs’s head of global equity research, stated that to justify a trillion or more dollars of investment, [AI] needs to solve complex problems and enable us to do things we haven’t been able to do before. He further noted that today’s flagship AI models, largely cannot.
Even though generative AI technology has been achieving a lot, such as advancing drug development, generating video clips, and even solving complex problems, making the technology profitable is still a major question. Only time will reveal whether these groundbreaking advancements can justify the immense investments that are pouring into the technology.
For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds.
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).
A team of telecom engineers discussing a communication infrastructure diagram.
Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 40
Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) is a leading provider of networking systems and software. It specializes in optical and routing systems, services, and automation software. On December 13, Bank of America upgraded Ciena Corp (NYSE:CIEN) to “Buy” from Neutral, lifting its price target to $95 from $70. The rating was due to stronger long-term growth prospects. The firm cited steady demand from North American service providers as well as increased orders from hyperscalers as the driving force for more advanced networking equipment. The firm anticipates better-than-expected growth for the networking company.
“However, trends are turning out better than we expected, with stabilizing demand at North American Service Providers (SPs), and Hyperscalers’ AI bandwidth needs driving accelerated order momentum”.
Overall, CIEN ranks 6th on our list of AI stocks taking Wall Street by storm. While we acknowledge the potential of CIEN as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some 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 CIEN but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.