We recently compiled a list of the 12 Most Widely Held Stocks by Individuals in 2025. In this article, we are going to take a look at where ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) stands against the other stocks widely held by individuals in 2025.
Individual investors, often called retail investors, typically invest their personal capital directly into the stock market, driven primarily by personal research, news sentiment, social media trends, or recommendations from peers. They often favor stocks of recognizable brands or companies whose products and services they use regularly, as well as growth stocks perceived to offer high return potential. While their success varies widely (often marked by emotional decision-making and mixed results) monitoring retail investor trends can be valuable, as these investors collectively have the power to significantly influence stock prices and market volatility. Understanding where retail attention is focused can provide early signals of market shifts, speculative bubbles, or emerging investment opportunities. Just to recall two recent instances when retail investors successfully short-squeezed and caused billions of losses to the smartest hedge funds in the world – as they say, even the less informed parties may occasionally win big, and it is, therefore, important to be aware of their tendencies and trends.
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The type of stocks most widely held by individuals has been changing over time, from consumer-centered brands that were popular in the ’80s and ’90s to popular dot-com names in the 2000s, and finally to technology stocks in the 2010s, as retail investors had firsthand experience with their products and platforms. One thing is certain – retail investors are often the last to jump on the ship, and periods of active inflow of retail money into stocks coincide with market peaks. A similar situation happened in the last two years, as the majority of the returns of the US stock market have been driven by a handful of 7–8 stocks with primary exposure to the AI megatrend – as you will see below, many of these stocks are now among the most widely held by individuals. It is no surprise that at this exact moment, the Magnificent 8 category, which confidently outperformed the whole market in the last two years, is finally lagging behind.
It should be noted that retail investors are not always wrong; in fact, you can frequently find quite promising high-growth names among those preferred by individuals. This category of investors often flocks together on social media platforms and actively shares knowledge with each other, meaning that the latest technological breakthroughs and inventions are already in their sights. In the current market, with uncertainties and fear looming from all directions (recall the tariff wars expected in April, large public spending cuts, layoffs, and Medicare/Medicaid threats), the “smart money” has been very cautious with US stocks. In fact, there has been a noticeable rotation of money from US stocks to the less overvalued foreign markets, like Germany and China, which have been using stimulus to fuel growth. With the US market becoming less favored by institutional investors, retail investors could enter the spotlight again and decide who the major winners will be.
This is particularly relevant as the modern investing philosophy has slowly drifted away from the rigid value-investing approach, which favors cheap, undervalued stocks, toward a preference for higher-growth stocks, which depend on momentum and often trade at high valuations for prolonged periods. The key takeaway for readers is that market winners are often not the cheap and undervalued stocks, but the stocks that gain the spotlight and become a magnet for money.
A technician in a clean room working on a semiconductor device, illuminated by the machines.
Our Methodology
For this article, we used the Robinhood Investor Index (which shows the most popular stocks on the investing platform Robinhood) and the Yahoo Finance Most Active Stocks screener to find a list of stocks most widely held by individual investors. We then compare the list with our proprietary database of hedge funds’ ownership, as of Q4 2024 and include in the article the top 12 stocks with the largest number of hedge funds that own the stock.
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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 86
ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) is a leading supplier of photolithography equipment essential for semiconductor manufacturing. The company specializes in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography systems, which enable the production of advanced microchips with smaller, more powerful, and energy-efficient transistors. ASML’s technology is critical for leading semiconductor manufacturers, including TSMC, Intel, and Samsung, in producing chips for applications such as AI, 5G, automotive, and high-performance computing. The company also provides software, metrology, and service solutions to optimize chip fabrication.
ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) delivered strong Q4 2024 performance with total net sales of EUR 9.3 billion, exceeding guidance primarily due to installed base revenue. The company’s full year 2024 net sales reached EUR 28.3 billion with a gross margin of 51.3%. For 2025, ASML projects revenue between EUR 30 billion and EUR 35 billion with gross margin between 51% and 53%. AI has emerged as a key growth driver, creating a shift in market dynamics that affects customers differently in the short term. The company anticipates that increased demand for advanced logic and DRAM processes, driven by AI applications, will lead to higher demand for ASML products and services.
Looking at longer-term prospects, ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) sees a 2030 revenue opportunity between EUR 44 billion and EUR 60 billion with a gross margin expected between 56% and 66%. The company achieved significant technology milestones in 2024, including successful demonstrations of the NXE:3800E Low-NA EUV system with 220 wafers per hour throughput. On the High-NA EUV front, ASML completed installation and customer acceptance of two systems in Q4, with customers reporting positive feedback on performance benefits in imaging, overlay, and contrast. For 2025, the company expects the Logic segment to show growth compared to 2024, while the Memory segment is anticipated to maintain strong performance similar to 2024 levels. Regarding China business, ASML expects it to normalize to a lower percentage of sales in 2025 and beyond, following relatively high levels in 2023 and 2024.
Overall ASML ranks 8th on our list of the 12 most widely held stocks by individuals in 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of 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 time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ASML 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.
