We recently compiled a list of the Best Future Stocks For The Long-Term. In this article, we will look at where ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) ranks among the best future stocks for the long term.

A Soft Landing is More than Likely

The Fed plans to initiate rate cuts for the first time in over four years and investors do not know what to expect of the financial markets moving forward. On September 17, Stephen Juneau, Bank of America US economist, appeared in an interview on Yahoo Finance to discuss the impact of an unexpected growth in consumer spending on the economy.

Juneau reiterated that economic data is highly volatile and that the retail data released this morning will not impact the Fed’s rate cut decision tomorrow, and he expects the Fed to stick to a 25-basis point cut. As for consumer behavior, the economy is finally moving toward normalization and the consumer’s basket of goods reflects that. These indications, the increasing labor demand, and a stable investment outlook hint that a hard landing is highly unlikely.

The Outlook of Investing Amid Rate Cuts

On September 17, Eric Freedman, US Bank Asset Management Group CIO, appeared in an interview on Yahoo Finance to discuss the rate cut and how investors view investing. Freedman said that the rate cut depends on the Fed’s path, therefore an accurate prediction may not be possible at the moment.

Freedman talks about investment from an individual perspective, suggesting investors must move out of the front end of the yield curve. He then pointed to sectors that are currently providing value to investors, including the consumer discretionary sector, some parts of the energy sector, and tech, especially because investments in the sector are predicted to grow rapidly, well into 2025.

He then discussed what companies need to do to attract investors. Freedman emphasized the need for strong financials and suggested that companies should engage in buybacks or consider increasing dividends. The perfect combination of stocks, according to Freedman, includes companies that are returning cash and seeing strong organic growth.

The future of the economy and the financial market is quite unpredictable. However, some stocks can influence the market not just now, but also in the future. With that, let’s take a look at the best future stocks for the long term.

Our Methodology 

To come up with the 10 best future stocks for the long term we looked up growth stocks in the AI, Cloud, Cybersecurity, Biotechnology, Electric Vehicle, and Renewable Energy industries. We then ranked the stocks with the highest number of hedge funds as 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).

ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 81

ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) is a semiconductor equipment company headquartered in the Netherlands. Companies use ASML’s extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines to develop AI chips. The growing demand for AI explains why EUV bookings increased by 56% year-over-year and total bookings increased by 24% year-over-year. By the end of the quarter, ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) had $39 billion in backlog.

In the second quarter of 2024, ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) logged $6.91 (EUR 6.2 billion) in revenue and expects net sales to grow to somewhere between $7.47 billion (EUR 6.7 billion) and $8.14 billion (EUR 7.3 billion) in Q3 2024. ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) believes 2024 is a transition year where they will continue to invest in increasing their capacity and improving their technology to be prepared to meet the surging demand in 2025.

For its 2030 guidance, ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) projected between EUR 44 billion and EUR 60 billion in revenue, in its investor day meeting in November 2022. The company has an 83% market share in lithography, explaining why 81 hedge funds were long on the stock at the end of Q2 2024. Of those, Fisher Asset Management was the largest shareholder with a position worth $3.23 billion.

Polen Capital Polen International Growth Strategy stated the following regarding ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:

“Netherlands-based ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) and Japan-based Lasertec play dominant roles within different segments of the global semiconductor industry. In both cases, shares rallied significantly in the fourth quarter of 2023, prompting our positions to grow as a percentage of the overall portfolio. We believe both companies will see demand for their products as extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography and soon high-numerical aperture lithography must be utilized to manufacture the world’s smallest chips. However, in our estimation, 2024 could deliver a year of less exciting growth for the semiconductor industry, which prompted us to trim these positions back.”

Overall, ASML ranks 7th on our list of the best future stocks for the long-term. 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 timeframe. 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 was originally published on Insider Monkey.