Investing.com — Active fund managers in the US continue to favor semiconductor stocks, but recent trends reveal shifts in ownership and weighting, according to a December 2024 update from Bank of America.
“Semis relative weighting of 0.97x was down slightly QoQ (1.01x in Sep ’24) though it remains near equal-weight level (1.00x) following a steady decline between Jul ’23 (1.18x) and Jul ’24 (1.00x) and from peak level in Mar ’17 (1.36x),” highlights the bank.
“NVDA continues to maintain broadest ownership,” added BofA. They note it is owned by 72% of active managers, an increase of 156 basis points quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) and 689 basis points year-over-year (YoY).
The bank says that despite its impressive growth prospects—forecasted at a 61% compound annual growth rate compared to peers’ 10%—NVDA’s relative weighting in portfolios stands at 1.01x, still below the 1.08x average for top technology and communication services peers.
Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) saw the most significant rise in ownership among semiconductor stocks, with 54.6% of fund managers holding the stock, up 240 basis points QoQ and 1,665 basis points YoY.
The bank said its relative weighting increased to 1.45x, making it one of the most overweighted semiconductor stocks. However, excluding its largest shareholder, AVGO’s adjusted weighting is lower at 0.72x.
Other highly owned semiconductor stocks are said to include Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), both held by 35.7% of managers and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) at 30.5%. While AMAT and AMD saw decreases in ownership QoQ, their relative weightings remain significant at 1.16x and 0.62x, respectively.
BofA’s report also pointed to the differences in preference between long-only (LO) investors and hedge funds (HFs).
They explained that LO investors were more overweight in Monolithic Power (NASDAQ:MPWR) Systems, Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN), and AMAT. In contrast, HFs showed higher weightings in Qorvo (NASDAQ:QRVO), Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX), and Cadence Design (NASDAQ:CDNS) Systems.
