Investing
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Goldman Sachs is the acknowledged leader in the investment landscape on Wall Street and worldwide. The firm’s top-notch research department continues to provide institutional and high-net-worth clients with the best ideas across the investment spectrum. It is likely to continue doing so for years. In addition, it provides advice, investing, and execution for institutions and individuals across public and private markets. At 24/7 Wall St., we have followed the company’s research for 15 years to bring our readers their top stock ideas. Recently, the firm initiated coverage on the Semiconductor Capital Equipment sector, and three of the industry’s giants received a “Buy” rating, along with strong target prices.
24/7 Wall St. Key Points:
- Semiconductor Capital Equipment stocks may have more upside potential than the semiconductor chip industry
- The massive run of NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) has taken many other chip stocks along for the ride
- With the market at all-time highs, it makes sense to scale buy stocks now
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With the massive run semiconductors have made over the last two years, driven by enormous demand for Artificial Intelligence and cloud computing capabilities, one of the best values in the technology sector may be in the Semiconductor Capital Equipment sector. The Goldman Sachs team made this statement when initiating its coverage of the industry.
We initiate on the US Semiconductor Capital Equipment, Storage, and Foundry sectors (12 companies), with a relatively balanced view given the mid-cycle dynamics we see. We believe the Semiconductor Capital Equipment industry is in a mid-cycle state, with both headwinds and tailwinds creating relatively stable revenue dynamics across the sector.
On one hand, the market outside China has been in a clear, shallow downcycle since 2022, driven by a downdraft in trailing-edge spending outside China. China has kept the Semi Cap sector in a slow-growth mode over this period, and while it’s tempting to view this growth as “hoarding” due to export restrictions, it’s quite possible to make a case for sustainability driven by continued strategic onshoring. Although we see more downside than upside risks at this point, we think “stable” revenue through 2026 is the most likely outcome, with sustainability in leading-edge Foundry (driven by AI) being the main swing factor.
As noted, the Goldman Sachs team initiated coverage on 12 stocks, and we were particularly interested in the Buy-rated companies, three of which pay dividends and are long-time stalwarts of the sector. All three options make sense for growth stock investors seeking a technology angle that is not overly overbought.
Why we recommend Goldman Sachs stocks
Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is the world’s second-largest investment bank by revenue and is ranked 55th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. The Wall Street white-glove giant offers financing, advisory services, risk distribution, and hedging for the firm’s institutional and corporate clients. With top-notch research from some of the top-ranked analysts on Wall Street, the company is an incredible source for some of the best investment ideas.
Applied Materials
This is one of the true giants of the industry, and is a strong legacy technology holding. Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) is a materials engineering solution company. The Company provides equipment, services, and software to the semiconductor, display, and related industries.
It operates in three segments:
- Semiconductor Systems
- Applied Global Services (AGS)
- Display
The Semiconductor systems segment designs, develops, manufactures, and sells a range of primarily 300 mm equipment used to fabricate semiconductor chips, also referred to as integrated circuits (ICs).
The AGS segment provides services, spares, and factory automation software to customer fabrication plants globally. The AGS segment also manufactures and sells 200mm and other equipment.
The Display segment is primarily comprised of products for manufacturing liquid crystal displays (LCDs), organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), and other display technologies used in:
- Televisions
- Monitors
- Laptops
- Personal computers (PCs)
- Tablets
- Smartphones
- Consumer-oriented devices
The Goldman Sachs target price for the stock is posted at $225.
Lam Research
This company had a breathtaking run over the last few years and recently completed a massive 10-for-1 split in the fall of 2024. Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ: LRCX) is a global supplier of wafer fabrication equipment and services to the semiconductor industry.
Lam Research designs, manufactures, markets, refurbishes, and services semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits.
Its products and services are designed to help its customers build devices that are used in a variety of electronic products, including mobile phones, personal computers, servers, wearables, automotive vehicles, and data storage devices.
The company’s product families include:
- ALTUS
- SABRE
- SPEED
- Striker
- VECTOR
- Flex
- Vantex
- Kiyo
- Versys Metal
- Syndion
- Coronus
- DV-Prime
- Da Vinci
- EOS
- SP Series
Its customer base includes semiconductor memory manufacturers, foundries, and integrated device manufacturers that produce products such as non-volatile memory, dynamic random-access memory, and logic devices.
The company offers services in areas such as nanoscale applications enablement, chemistry, plasma and fluidics, and others.
The Goldman Sachs target price objective is set at $115
Seagate Technology
While not in the Magnificent 7, this legacy technology giant posted a 66.1% total return mark in the first six months of 2025. Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ: STX) provides mass data storage infrastructure solutions. The Company’s principal products are hard disk drives, commonly referred to as disk drives, hard drives (HDDs).
In addition to HDDs, the Company produces a range of data storage products, including:
- Solid state drives (SSDs),
- Solid state hybrid drives,
- Storage subsystems
- Scalable edge-to-cloud mass data platform
Its HDD products are designed for mass capacity storage and legacy markets. Mass capacity storage involves various use cases, including hyperscale data centers and public clouds, as well as emerging applications.
The Company’s HDD and SSD product portfolio includes:
- Serial Advanced Technology Attachment,
- Serial Attached SCSI and
- Non-Volatile Memory Express-based designs to support a variety of mass capacity and legacy applications
Its systems portfolio includes storage subsystems for enterprises, cloud service providers, scale-out storage servers, and original equipment manufacturers.
Goldman Sachs has a Buy rating with a $170 target price objective.
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