We recently published a list of the 10 Best Growth Stocks To Invest In Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) stands against other best growth stocks.
What Does the Santa Claus Rally Mean for Stocks?
Is a December rally in store for stocks in 2024? Some investors are expecting a surge in stocks from the 24th of December to the 3rd of January, 2025, also referred to as the Santa Claus Rally. On December 17, Ryan Detric, Chief Market Strategist at Carson Group, Joined Catalysts on Yahoo Finance to discuss whether he expects December to be a record-breaking month for the stock market.
Historically, the first half of December is usually slow for the stock market, while the second half is faster, suggested Detric. He also added that compared to election years in the past, this December has been very “flattish” so far. He also suggested that the Fed is going to continue the easing cycle and with the CPI declining, the current market conditions are favorable. Detrick then added that despite macroeconomic conditions and the performance of the Dow Jones index recently, he expects to see a record surge this month and expects “Santa Claus” to make an appearance this year.
“It’s a Bullish Environment for Big Tech”
Since the elections, stocks have been rallying with high hopes for the future. On December 18, Dan Ives, Managing Director at Wedbush Securities, joined Market Domination on Yahoo Finance to discuss his outlook on Big Tech and the new administration. Ives emphasized that the autonomous robotics and disruptive technologies sectors are going to benefit strongly from the new administration and its policies, despite concerns over tariffs. He also discussed the growing relationship between the new administration and Elon Musk, and how the two parties “need each other” to thrive, suggesting that Musk’s company has solid growth potential in the coming year and AI innovation will strengthen the collaboration immensely.
He also added that the environment is extremely bullish for Big Tech and expects growth in the coming year. Ives shared that while there are a few road bumps, especially from the Chinese market, the environment in retrospect is positive. Speaking of the electric vehicle market, he emphasized that new policies in the US coupled with international consolidation, especially in Europe and Asia, will benefit EV makers in the United States immensely.
The expectations from growth stocks are immense as the AI revolution takes precedence.
Our Methodology
To come up with the 10 best growth stocks to invest in now, we went over multiple rankings on the internet to compile an initial list of growth stocks. 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 Q3 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).
An engineer in a lab coat examining a state-of-the-art semiconductor chip.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 158
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM), a chip maker for technology giants like NVIDIA and AMD, attributes its revenue growth to the increasing demand for artificial intelligence. In the third quarter of 2024, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) logged revenue worth $23.7 billion (NT$759.69 billion) and net income worth $10.13 billion (NT$325.26 billion), up by 39% and 54.2% year-over-year, respectively.
Its advanced microprocessors have fueled business for TSMC immensely, keeping the hopes up of investors, especially after ASML cut down guidance. On October 17, TECHnalysis Research president and chief analyst, Bob O’Donnell, appeared on Yahoo Finance to discuss the position of TSMC. He shared that ASML cutting its guidance has more to do with challenges in China and much less with the semiconductor industry. He added that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) posted a solid financial performance, emphasizing that the company beat earnings and raised its guidance for 2025, suggesting that TSMC is a “much better bellwether” of AI.
Overall, TSMC expects its four-year revenue to increase by nearly 30% due to the growing demand for artificial intelligence. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) also plans to spend nearly $32 billion to $40 billion in capital expenditures in 2024 and expects revenue from AI chips to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50% by 2027.
Baron Global Advantage Fund stated the following regarding Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“We established a small position in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM). Morris Chang founded TSMC in 1987, as the world’s first dedicated semiconductor foundry. Until then, semiconductor chips were always designed and manufactured by the same company. TSMC introduced a groundbreaking new business model, in which it acted purely as a contract manufacturer, which proved to be highly successful. TSMC maintained a focus on improving its manufacturing process technology and enabled the emergence of innovative fabless design companies, including NVIDIA, Apple, and Qualcomm, who became TSMC’s key customers. Today, TSMC has a more than 60% share of the total semiconductor foundry market and over 90% share in leading-edge manufacturing. TSMC enjoys high barriers to entry given the ever-increasing cost and technological complexity of semiconductor manufacturing while benefiting from economies of scope as once leading-edge manufacturing becomes lagging edge on fully depreciated equipment. TSMC also benefits from scale– higher profits lead to higher R&D and capex investments, allowing for further technological differentiation, resulting in more profits. We believe TSMC will sustain strong double-digit earnings growth for years to come, driven by continued market share gains, strong pricing power, and structural growth in AI demand. According to C.C. Wei, TSMC’s CEO, “almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the insatiable AI-related demand.”6 Management forecasts that revenue from server AI chips, such as GPUs and other AI accelerators, will grow at a 50% CAGR from 2022 to 2028 and account for more than 20% of TSMC’s revenue by 2028. We except further long-term upside from the eventual proliferation of edge AI devices, including AI smartphones and AI PCs, which will require significantly more computing power and drive even stronger demand for TSMC’s leading-edge technology.”
Overall, TSM ranks 6th on our list of the best growth stocks to invest in. While we acknowledge the potential of TSM 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 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.