We recently published a list of 10 High Growth Semiconductor Stocks That Are Profitable Heading into 2025. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) stands against other high growth semiconductor stocks that are profitable.
Semiconductors have led industrial advancements and aided key applications such as personal computing, data centers, and cloud computing. As per PwC, Memory ICs were the fastest-growing semiconductor category over the previous 2 decades, with DRAM and HBM standing out. The broader DRAM market is supported by cost and scale, while HBM, because of its advanced technological requirements, reflects a high-barrier, closed-loop ecosystem.
Global Semiconductor Sales Rose 20.7% YoY in November 2024
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) announced that global semiconductor sales touched $57.8 billion during November 2024 month, demonstrating 20.7% growth as compared to November 2023 total of $47.9 billion and 1.6% growth as compared to the October 2024 total of $56.9 billion. As per the report published by SEMI (Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International), the semiconductor industry is expected to begin 18 new fab construction projects in 2025. These new projects will include three 200mm and fifteen 300mm facilities. Notably, the majority will begin operations from 2026 – 2027.
In 2025, the Americas and Japan will be the leading regions with 4 projects each. Next, China and Europe & Middle East regions have 3 planned construction projects. Finally, Taiwan has 2 planned projects, with Korea and Southeast Asia having 1 project each for this year. As per SEMI’s President and CEO, investments have been fueling leading-edge and mainstream technologies to cater to dynamic global demands. Gen-AI and high-performance computing continue to fuel advancements in the leading-edge logic and memory segments. However, mainstream nodes have supported crucial automotive, IoT, and power electronics applications.
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Semiconductor Capacity to Ramp Up
SEMI projects semiconductor capacity to accelerate further, with a 6.6% yearly growth rate to a total of 33.6 million wafers per month (wpm) for 2025. This expansion is expected to primarily stem from leading-edge logic technologies in high-performance computing (HPC) applications and higher penetration of generative AI in edge devices. Overall, the broader semiconductor industry continues to focus on building advanced computing capabilities, and responding to the increased computational demands of LLMs.
Moving forward, foundry suppliers are expected to be the leaders in purchases of semiconductor equipment. The Foundry segment can increase capacity by 10.9% YoY, increasing from 11.3 million wpm in 2024 to 12.6 million wpm in 2025.
Our Methodology
To list the 10 High Growth Semiconductor Stocks That Are Profitable Heading into 2025, we conducted extensive research and scanned through several online rankings to shortlist companies having ~10% revenue growth over the previous 5 years and TTM net income of at least $400 million. We also mentioned the hedge fund sentiments around each stock, as of Q3 2024. Finally, the stocks were ranked in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiments.
At Insider Monkey we are obsessed with 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 technician in a clean room assembling a semiconductor chip using a microscope.
Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)
5-year Sales Growth: ~13.22%
TTM net income: $7,177.0 Million
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 74
Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) is engaged in the provision of manufacturing equipment, services, and software to the semiconductor, display, and related industries. Morningstar believes that the company tends to benefit from good AI investment and broader demand across semiconductor markets. The firm expects 8% compound annual sales growth for Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) through fiscal 2029. Furthermore, it projects strong growth for the company in fiscal 2025 and 2026, aided partly by strong capacity expansions at chipmakers to supply AI demand. The company’s system sales are the most cyclical, while its services business is stable, which supports offsetting some cyclicality on the top line.
Morningstar gave a wide moat rating to the company, given its intangible assets and switching costs. As per the firm, Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) has the most comprehensive portfolio of equipment for semiconductor manufacturing. The company is expected to benefit from drivers of chip complexity, such as gate-all-around transistors and advanced packaging. Furthermore, Morningstar expects the company to focus on generating strong cash flow while prioritizing R&D investment.
KeyCorp upgraded the shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) from a “Sector weight” rating to an “Overweight” rating, providing a price target of $225.00 on 17th January. Vltava Fund, an investment management company, recently released its Q4 2024 investor letter. Here is what the fund said:
“In the quarter just ended, we added to the portfolio two new companies from the technology sector: Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) and Lam Research. Both are in the same industry as is another of our investments that we have held for some time, KLA Corporation. This industry is termed semiconductor devices and materials. One chapter in Hidden Investment Treasures is devoted to investing in technology companies and, among other things, the controversy over what really constitutes a technology company. As investors, we try to view technology companies not according to the industry into which they are formally classified but by whether the technologies and technological processes used in the production of their products and services are an essential element in value creation or if they are a source of long-term, sustainable competitive advantage. Among the companies that are formally categorized as technology-based and fall into either the Information Technology or the Communications Services sector, we find some that can be said to be just that but also others for which this classification is at least debatable. Similarly, among companies that do not formally belong to these two sectors, we find many that clearly are built to a large extent on technology and base their market positions and competitiveness on it. In the cases of Applied Materials and Lam Research, there can be no doubt that these are technology companies not only as a formality but also in fact.
Applied Materials provides manufacturing equipment, services, and software for the semiconductor, display, and related industries. Its principal business activities are semiconductor systems and Applied Global Services. Its largest customers are Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductors, but its overall clientele is more diversified than is that of Lam Research. At first glance, it would appear that Applied Materials has a somewhat less tangible and definable competitive advantage compared to KLA Corporation and Lam Research, but the numbers do not support such a view. Net margins likewise in the neighborhood of 27% and ROCE around 30% are outstanding. Basically, it can be said that all three companies we own have very similar underlying profitability metrics. Even their valuations, growth, and potential are similar. All have strong free cash flow and strong balance sheets, and they are regularly buying back their own shares over the long term and in large volumes…” (Click here to read the full text)
Overall, AMAT ranks 5th on our list of high growth semiconductor stocks that are profitable heading into 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of AMAT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some deeply undervalued AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for a deeply undervalued AI stock that is more promising than AMAT 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.