We recently compiled the list of the 15 Best Hardware Stocks According To Goldman Sachs using the latest sentiment data. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) stands against the other hardware stocks.
The soaring popularity of artificial intelligence for consumer and business applications has injected fresh life into the computing industry. If we’re to rewind the hands of time and go back to 2022, the stock market environment was considerably different from what it is now. All major technology stocks, including those that are responsible for making chips that power AI workloads were down by double digit percentages in the wake of breakneck inflation and rising interest rates.
Fast forward to 2024 and the rise in valuations seems to have no end in sight. One bank that’s quite optimistic about artificial intelligence is Goldman. Goldman’s analyst teams are among the best in the world, and they spend countless hours analyzing stocks and industries for the right set of picks that could disrupt the industry.
On this front, Goldman came out with a note recently that outlined a new beginning for the computer hardware industry. According to the bank, the introduction of AI has necessitated a global shift to new hardware that can support the technology. In its note, the bank’s analysts shared:
During the pandemic, the tech hardware industry peaked as the majority of work-from-home employees purchased equipment. The space currently has fully unwind this cycle and we notice stocks like HPQ trading at 9x their 2025 earnings estimates.
Most PCs purchased during the pandemic are expected to be replaced soon. We expect discernable new features of AI, enhanced security, and stronger computational power in upcoming PC and mobile device models, incentivizing the US consumer to spend more on newer equipment than historically, creating an unusually stronger cycle.
Goldman also created a basket of stocks where the highest weighted stock has an 8% weight and there are 20 stocks in the basket. According to Goldman analyst Faris Mourad:
The basket is composed of technology hardware stocks that may benefit from PC and mobile device renovations that could include AI features. The basket can trade up to $250m in one day with no name exceeding 10% of ADV.
Considering this optimism, we decided to take a look at the top Goldman’s top 15 hardware stock picks.
Our Methodology
To make our list of the top Goldman Sachs hardware stocks, we used the top holdings of the bank’s PC & Mobile Device AI Upgrades basket (GSXUPCAI).
For these hardware stocks, we also mentioned hedge fund investors. 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).
1. Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL)
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders In Q1 2024: 82
Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) is one of the most well known personal and enterprise computing hardware products providers in the world. However, Wall Street’s AI euphoria wasn’t kind to the stock in June 2024 after its earnings report saw investors question AI product margins. After the earnings, Evercore ISI kept a $165 share price target and an Outperform rating on Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL)’s shares as it outlined that the firm can rake in hefty AI server revenues, attributed earnings weakness to seasonality, and added that margins could jump to sit in between mid to high teens.
Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL)’s forward price to earnings ratio of 16.92 means that the market expects it to grow slowly than broader indexes. Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) CEO Jeff Clarke was also optimistic about its AI products, sharing during the ill fated earnings call:
ISG, our AI-optimized servers orders increased to $2.6 billion, with shipments up more than 100% sequentially to $1.7 billion. We have now shipped more than $3 billion of AI servers over the last three quarters.
Our AI server backlog is $3.8 billion, growing sequentially by approximately $900 million. Our AI optimized server pipeline grew quarter-over-quarter again and remains a multiple of our backlog. We’ve seen an expansion in the number of enterprise customers buying AI solutions, which remains a significant opportunity for us given we are in the early stages of AI adoption.
Overall, DELL ranks first among the 15 best hardware stocks to buy according to famed investment bank. You can visit the 15 Best Hardware Stocks According To Goldman to see the other hardware stocks. While we acknowledge the potential of DELL as an AI investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than DELL 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. The article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
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