Harding Loevner, an asset management company, released its “Global Developed Markets Equity Strategy” fourth-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. International stock markets concluded the last quarter of 2024 on a negative note, although US stocks significantly surpassed the rest of the world, during the year and the quarter. The fund declined by -0.99% gross of fee in the fourth quarter compared to a -0.07% decline in the MSCI World Index. For the full year, the strategy rose 15.2%, lagging the benchmark’s 19.2% gain. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Harding Loevner Global Developed Markets Equity Strategy emphasized stocks such as ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML). Headquartered in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) offers lithography solutions for the development and production of advanced semiconductor equipment systems. The one-month return of ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) was -14.89%, and its shares lost 36.38% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On April 3, 2025, ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) stock closed at $623.22 per share with a market capitalization of $261.587 billion.
Harding Loevner Global Developed Markets Equity Strategy stated the following regarding ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“One example is ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML), a Dutch supplier of advanced photolithography equipment used by the semiconductor industry to make chips. Following the stock’s strong run over the past two years, the price became difficult to justify based on the company’s fundamentals, and so we sold our shares in August. One of our chief concerns was related to geopolitical risk. China accounts for 47% of ASML’s sales, but export restrictions imposed by the US have prevented ASML from selling its most advanced machinery to Chinese customers. The possibility of further restrictions was plainly visible, yet the stock price seemed to discount a blue-sky scenario. In October, weeks after we exited, ASML reported bookings, an indicator of future revenue, that were well below investors’ expectations. The stock plummeted, and the whole industry came under investor scrutiny.
We’ll probably never know how much of the booking shortfall reflected overly rosy expectations by investors at their moment of peak optimism, and how much was the result of trade restrictions. However, not long after our sale, the US government did introduce additional restrictions on the export of advanced semiconductor chips and equipment to China, and there have been more restrictions announced since then.”
A technician in a clean room working on a semiconductor device, illuminated by the machines.
ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 86 hedge fund portfolios held ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 64 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that 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 as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
We covered ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) in another article, where we shared the list of best innovative stocks to buy according to analysts. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.