We recently compiled a list of the 10 Most Widely Held Stocks by Hedge Funds. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) stands against the other widely held stocks.
Two 25 Point Cuts May be the Most Likely Outcome
The last trading day of September is upon us and so are many questions about the market. On September 30, Dana D’Auria, Envestnet Solutions co-CIO and group president, appeared in an interview on Yahoo Finance to discuss the financial market.
D’Auria regards employment data to be a major concern at the moment. Since inflation rates are subsiding, employment data is something investors should be on the lookout for, along with other data points including GDP and consumer confidence. She suggests that to ensure a soft landing, the Fed must initiate larger rate cuts, and that recessionary conditions are out of the picture.
September is notoriously volatile along with October, and, with elections in another 35 days, the conditions may be slightly different or even more turbulent. According to D’Auria, the 50 basis point cut is a catch-up for July, and expecting a 50 basis point cut in November is borderline questionable.
Overall, she believes that the market has been overshooting and we may have to settle for two 25 basis point cuts before the end of 2024. She reiterates that the job market is crucial and investors must get out of their comfort zone to invest in non-cash opportunities. Investors concerned about low-risk options may consider equities in the defensive sectors that are innately low volatile.
The Market is Broadening
Wall Street is heading to close September and Q3 on a high note and stocks have experienced their best September in over a decade. On September 30, Kevin Gordon, harles Schwab’s Director and Senior Investment Strategist, appeared in an interview on Yahoo Finance to discuss his market thesis.
Gordon believes that stocks in the utilities and defensive sectors have caught up to tech stocks amid the AI boom, compared to their financials at the end of FY 2023. However, he does acknowledge that sectors like industrials, financials, and materials are performing relatively well, calling it a case of market broadening.
In terms of market breadth, most sectors are experiencing an upward trajectory. Almost 81% of the S&P 500 members are experiencing an uptrend, despite the quality bias investors may have towards certain stocks. According to Gordon, large-cap quality stocks will continue to perform well despite the volatility and the Fed’s decisions. Speaking of smaller-cap stocks, he believes that some stocks may struggle a bit especially when it comes to earnings growth.
Our Methodology
To come up with the 10 most widely held stocks by hedge funds, we sifted through Insider Monkey’s database that tracks over 900 hedge funds, as of Q2 2024. We ranked the top 10 stocks that were the most widely held by hedge funds in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment.
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 of a complex network of integrated circuits used in logic semiconductors.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 156
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) ranks eighth on our list of the most widely held stocks by hedge funds. TSMC is a semiconductor manufacturing and design company. The leading fabrication entity makes chips for tech giants including Nvidia and AMD.
In the second quarter of 2024, the company’s revenue increased by 13.6% sequentially, led by growing demand for its nanometer technologies. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) expects revenue from AI chips to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50% by 2027. For the year ended 2024, TSMC projects a 20% growth in revenue, again driven by the demand for chips used in artificial intelligence.
TMSC expects its 2024 capital expenditure budget to lie between $30 billion and $32 billion. Of this, 70% to 80% of the budget will be allocated to advanced process technologies, nearly 20% will be directed to specialty technologies, and 10% will be spent on advanced packaging, testing, and mass-making. In addition to that, TMSC formed a joint venture, European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC), with Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG, and NXP Semiconductors N.V. to launch a semiconductor fab in Dresden, Germany. This fab will be the EU’s first Fin-FET capable pure-play foundry.
Despite macro headwinds and geopolitical turmoil in the country, analysts are bullish on the stock, and their 1-year median price target of $209 points to a 20% upside from current levels. Overall, TSM was held by 156 hedge funds at the close of Q2 2024 with total stakes amounting to $21.28 billion.
Diamond Hill Capital stated the following regarding Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“On an individual holdings’ basis, top contributors to return in Q2 included our long positions in Alphabet, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) and Microsoft. Semiconductor manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor’s (TSMC) fundamentals remain solid as demand for its chips continues growing — particularly as the machine learning and cloud computing trends gain more traction.”
Overall TSM ranks 8th on our list of the most widely held stocks by hedge funds. While we acknowledge the potential of TSM 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 TSM 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.