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Tag: small- or micro-cap stocks

The Search for ‘Undiscovered’ AI Chip Stocks

Published May 21, 2024

This blog post was originally published as part of today’s Daily Contrarian.

Recent market activity shows investors don’t want to wait for Nvidia (NVDA) earnings tomorrow to bid up AI chip stocks. Marvell Technology (MRVL) was one of the biggest winners yesterday. Smaller AI names like Soundhound AI (SOUN) also put in rallies, as did the usual suspects AMD (AMD), Micron (MU), Super Micro Computer (SMCI), Broadcom (AVGO), and Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM).

AI bull

Here’s an idea for an ETF: small AI hardware names. Limit it at, say $5 billion market cap companies. The focus on hardware would (presumably) allow for a margin of safety. It would also weed out names like the aforementioned Soundhound, C3.ai (AI), FARO Technologies (FARO), and others including companies that just plaster the term ‘AI’ all over their marketing materials to attract attention.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t leave much. The Contrarian did a preliminary search and found just a few such companies, almost all of them suppliers to the semiconductor industry. Of course, ‘undiscovered’ is a bit of a misnomer here. Investors have picked through any and every stock even remotely related to AI. Still, it’s fair to say these securities are certainly under-covered by Wall Street.

Names include ACM Research (ACMR), Camtek (CAMT), FormFactor (FORM), Ichor Holdings (ICHR), Kulicke and Soffa Industries (KLIC), Photronics (PLAB), Ultra Clean Holdings (UCTT), and Veeco Instruments (VECO).

It’s likely the AI hype story is already priced in to these stocks (didn’t check). But it may be worth putting these names in an index to track them, to the extent that somebody hasn’t done it yet. If nothing else this could give us an idea of stocks to buy when (if) there is a pullback in AI chip names.

There are obviously private companies as well, including Anthropic (OpenAI rival), Graphcore, Cerebras, SambaNova, Groq.

The Contrarian does not hold any of these stocks.

Update June 4, 2024: ACM Research will be removed from this list as the company does most of its business in China.

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Mild Recession Brings Opportunities in Tech Stocks, Corporate Bonds: (Season 5, Episode 12)

Published May 11, 2023

Feat Elliot Kallen, Prosperity Financial Group

Elliot Kallen, founder of Prosperity Financial Group, joins the podcast to discuss his expectations for a coming recession, to start this summer, and why some of the best opportunities may be in technology stocks and corporate bonds.

Content Highlights

  • Tech stocks: the pullback is coming (3:31);
  • The market is starting to flatline. Look to midcap value stocks (6:04);
  • The Fed will likely raise rates one more time and then reverse. Time to buy bonds — corporates (8:47);
  • Consumers have already started to pull back, judging by some primary evidence the guest gathers… (12:02);
  • Why the recession will be mild, despite the red flags (17:38);
  • Background on the guest (24:00);
  • Active management has its place (30:24);
  • Thoughts on the next generation growth industries (36:53).

For More Information on the Guest

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MoreMild Recession Brings Opportunities in Tech Stocks, Corporate Bonds: (Season 5, Episode 12)
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Bullish on Oil, Pipeline Stocks, Long-Term Bullish on Cannabis: Todd Sullivan (Szn 4, Ep 27)

Published October 5, 2022

This podcast episode brought to you by Covey — Covey is designed to find, reward, and train the next top investment managers —from any background—that anyone can copy, so everyone can win.

Todd Sullivan of ValuePlays.com rejoins the podcast to discuss oil markets and the investment case for cannabis.

Sullivan’s call for $100 oil last year turned out to be prescient. Oil prices have retreated from their peak, but that will be short-lived, he says…

(This episode was recorded Sept. 22, before the recent rebound in oil prices. Premium subscribers get an early actionable highlight clip of the podcast along with earlier release of the full episode — and a host of other benefits. More on our Substack or Supercast.)

Content Highlights

  • Fears of ‘demand destruction’ have led to the decline in oil prices, but risks are tilted toward prices moving higher again. Production is not coming back (3:48);
  • How much of a concern is a slowing Chinese economy when it comes to oil prices? (10:14);
  • What about stocks? Sullivan continues to like pipeline companies… (16:00);
  • The investment case for cannabis: Overview (27:03);
  • The only thing that will unleash capital on the cannabis industry is decriminalization (31:46);
  • What to look for if you are looking to buy and hold cannabis stocks and two of the guest’s favorites (34:30).

More About Todd Sullivan

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MoreBullish on Oil, Pipeline Stocks, Long-Term Bullish on Cannabis: Todd Sullivan (Szn 4, Ep 27)
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