In this article we will take a look at whether hedge funds think ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) is a good investment right now. We check hedge fund and billionaire investor sentiment before delving into hours of research. Hedge funds spend millions of dollars on Ivy League graduates, unconventional data sources, expert networks, and get tips from investment bankers and industry insiders. Sure they sometimes fail miserably, but their consensus stock picks historically outperformed the market after adjusting for known risk factors.
Is ASML a good stock to buy? ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) was in 41 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The all time high for this statistic is 44. ASML investors should pay attention to a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately. There were 44 hedge funds in our database with ASML holdings at the end of June. Our calculations also showed that ASML isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings).
Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium prices have more than doubled over the past year, so we go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. With all of this in mind let’s take a peek at the latest hedge fund action regarding ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML).
Do Hedge Funds Think ASML Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At third quarter’s end, a total of 41 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -7% from the second quarter of 2021. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in ASML over the last 25 quarters. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
More specifically, Fisher Asset Management was the largest shareholder of ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML), with a stake worth $3055.8 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Fisher Asset Management was Arrowstreet Capital, which amassed a stake valued at $949.1 million. Citadel Investment Group, Melvin Capital Management, and Jericho Capital Asset Management were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Unio Capital allocated the biggest weight to ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML), around 4.56% of its 13F portfolio. Alight Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 3.7 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to ASML.
Since ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) has faced bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there exists a select few money managers who were dropping their positions entirely by the end of the third quarter. Intriguingly, Brandon Haley’s Holocene Advisors cut the biggest stake of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $54.9 million in stock, and Leon Shaulov’s Maplelane Capital was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $24.9 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 3 funds by the end of the third quarter.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML). We will take a look at The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), Paypal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL), Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE), Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM), Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA), and Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE:RDS). This group of stocks’ market valuations match ASML’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIS | 101 | 9416047 | -11 |
| PYPL | 123 | 12880990 | -20 |
| ADBE | 95 | 12682168 | 6 |
| NFLX | 106 | 14759355 | -7 |
| CRM | 119 | 14900848 | 11 |
| CMCSA | 75 | 8547154 | -9 |
| RDS | 33 | 2053904 | -5 |
| Average | 93.1 | 10748638 | -5 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 93.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $10749 million. That figure was $4858 million in ASML’s case. Paypal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE:RDS) is the least popular one with only 33 bullish hedge fund positions. ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for ASML is 34.4. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 28.6% in 2021 through November 30th and beat the market by 5.6 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on ASML, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 6.5% since the end of Q3 (through November 30th) and outperformed the market.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
