Investor Optimism Around AI Boosted ASML (ASML) in Q3

Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its third-quarter 2025 “Polen International Growth Strategy” investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The strategy returned -4.23% gross and -4.53% net of fees in the quarter, compared to the MSCI ACWI’s (ex-USA) 6.89% gain. The strategy’s concentrated approach to quality investing failed to match the index in the quarter. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to find out its best picks for 2025.

In its third-quarter 2025 investor letter, Polen International Growth Strategy highlighted stocks such as ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML). Headquartered in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) offers lithography solutions for the development and production of advanced semiconductor equipment systems. The one-month return for ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) was 9.51%, and its shares gained 58.76% over the last 52 weeks. On December 08, 2025, ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) stock closed at $1,119.69 per share, with a market capitalization of $434.605 billion.

Polen International Growth Strategy stated the following regarding ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) in its third quarter 2025 investor letter:

"The top three contributors to the Portfolio’s relative and absolute performance in the quarter were Shopify, ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML), and ICON plc. ASML finished the quarter strong, with the stock up significantly in September. Semiconductor capital equipment (“semi-cap”) companies benefitted from investor optimism around AI. Advanced chips are central to AI and ASML’s equipment is essential to printing advanced logic and volatile memory chips. Concerns about a slowdown in the memory chip industry and about Intel waned during the quarter, helping lift semi-cap stocks."

ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 82 hedge fund portfolios held ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) at the end of the third quarter, which was 78 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

In another article, we covered ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) and shared the list of most profitable tech stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.