We recently published a list of 10 Best Innovative Stocks to Invest in According to Hedge Funds. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) stands against other best innovative stocks to invest in according to hedge funds.
Technology is a Big Deal, Strategist Highlights
The Magnificent Seven continues to grasp a sizeable market share of the market gains over the past few years. That said, investors and analysts are excited to see what this earnings period has to offer for the magnificent seven and how much of an influence they have on the market. On October 31, Christian Dery, head of macro strategy at Capital Fund Management, appeared in an interview on Yahoo Finance to discuss the impact of the magnificent seven on the market.
Dery suggested that these companies have grown to become large entities and their market capitalization often fluctuates by $2 billion to $400 billion on earnings events. Looking at the dispersion of the index, Dery adds that individual stocks within the S&P are very diverse and more independent, hinting towards a very low correlation in the index.
He adds that generative AI and LLMs are very different from the traditional software business. Therefore, the hyperscaling model that is conventionally taken from software can not be applied here. For every new customer in the software business, the marginal cost often goes down to nearly zero. However, if you look at the “tech incumbents”, they have to increase their capital expenditures to develop compute clusters and scale their operations, suggests Dery.
In 2023, the chips industry generated revenue of about $3 billion, reflecting that we are yet to find a killer use case or see results of generous AI spending. Dery adds that the market is more likely to be “discerning” on the path to profitability since companies are going to focus more on capital expenditures and projections for capital expenditures. He is particularly interested in the CapEx projections of the Magnificent Seven and shares that if they miss there could be a negative reaction among those stocks.
Dery reiterated that the market is yet to see the investments pay off multiple times but maintains his interest in capital expenditures by these companies playing out. While he is bullish on technological innovation and believes artificial intelligence is disruptive and a “big deal”, he fails to see viable results as of now. Dery also emphasizes that these companies are directing their investments to AI because they do not want to fall behind competitors, with no proper timeline for AI monetization.
That said, some companies are investing heavily in innovation and are at the forefront of a technological revolution.
Our Methodology
To come up with the 10 best innovative stocks to invest in according to hedge funds, we went over multiple similar rankings on the internet from credible financial websites. We then examined the hedge fund sentiment of each stock and picked the most popular ones. Our list is in ascending order of the number of hedge fund holders as of the end of Q2 2024.
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 close-up view of a computer motherboard with integrated semiconductor chips.
Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 120
Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) ranks seventh on our list of the best innovative stocks according to hedge funds. Its primary offerings include memory and storage products.
In the fiscal year 2024, Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) grew its revenue by 62% and gross margins by more than 30 percentage points, driven by growth in its data center and automotive segments. During the year, the company invested $8.1 billion in capital expenditures and expects CapEx to be considerably higher in 2025.
Speaking of artificial intelligence, on October 15, Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) launched a new portfolio of memory solutions that are capable of fueling the new wave of AI PCs. Its corporate vice president, Dinesh Bahal, stresses the need for a memory paradigm shift as AI takes flight. To align with his stance, Micron is working relentlessly to meet the need for future AI workloads. In addition to that, the company has also been working with Intel to deliver next-generation compute performance to the market.
Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) is shifting its complete focus to meeting the demands for artificial intelligence and data center customers, two of the fastest-growing industries at the moment. The company expects server unit shipments to grow significantly this year as the demand for AI servers continues to increase, positioning it as a major player in AI.
Baird Chautauqua International and Global Growth Fund stated the following regarding Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“After Micron Technology, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:MU) price appreciated 54% in 1H24, investors became anxious about potential memory weakness, less clear cyclical recovery pace, and whether competitor Samsung will act rationally with capacity expansion. We maintain our long-term positive view on the industry’s demand/supply situation. We believe Micron is well positioned in technology capability, and that its margins will continue to improve.”
Overall, MU ranks 7th on our list of best innovative stocks to invest in according to hedge funds. While we acknowledge the potential of MU to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that certain 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 MU 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.