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Nvidia is expected to grow rapidly through 2026. These companies can grow faster.

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Nvidia is expected to grow rapidly through 2026. These companies can grow faster.

The PHLX Semiconductor Index has returned 74% over the past two years with dividends reinvested, while the S&P 500 has returned 39%. – Getty Images

Nvidia Corp. dominates the news cycle in the semiconductor manufacturing space, and rightfully so. But many other chipmakers are expected to post impressive numbers over the next two years.

Nvidia NVDA has dominated the market for graphics processing units, which are deployed by data centers to support the development of artificial intelligence technology by its enterprise customers. The company has delivered dramatic revenue growth over the past five reported fiscal quarters. Nvidia’s market cap has risen to $2.61 trillion from $358 billion two years ago. The company’s shares now make up 5.7% of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, the oldest and largest exchange-traded fund tracking the S&P 500 SPX. Only Apple Inc. AAPL and Microsoft Corp. MSFT have larger weightings in the index.

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Nvidia more than doubled its sales last calendar year and is expected to do the same this year. The company probably won’t be able to sustain that rapid growth, but it’s still expected to be a relatively fast grower within its industry.

Analysts on average are modeling nearly 33% compound annual growth rate for Nvidia’s revenue through calendar year 2026. That’s notable given that some investors have grown concerned about Nvidia’s growth potential beyond calendar year 2026, especially in light of a less dramatic revenue win in its most recent quarter and swirling questions about the return on investment in AI spending. If big cloud customers and others don’t see enough AI revenue to justify their investments, they may be less inclined to plow more money into AI hardware.

Semiconductor Stock Screening

When a company effectively creates a large and lucrative new market, it can be expected that the competition will step up its game and eventually take some share. Or perhaps in the case of Nvidia, there will be a breathing space for GPU implementation as companies that invest so much in new hardware feel pressured to make a profit from AI-related products and services.

So now is a good time to look ahead. We can do this by calculating the expected compound growth rates for the revenues of players in the semiconductor industry over the next two years.

For this screen, we started with the 30 components of the iShares Semiconductor ETF SOXX, which tracks the PHLX Semiconductor Index SOX. We then added the 31 additional companies in the S&P 1500 Composite Index XX:SP1500 that are in the semiconductor industry, as defined by FactSet, or in the Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment Global Industry Classification Standard family, as defined in companies’ filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The S&P Composite 1500 Index consists of the S&P 500 SPX, the S&P MidCap 400 Index MID, and the S&P Small Cap 600 Index SML.

Next, we looked at calendar-year revenue estimates through 2026 from analysts surveyed by FactSet to see which companies are expected to post the highest two-year sales CAGR. We used calendar-year estimates, as adjusted by FactSet, because many companies confuse investors with non-calendar fiscal years. For example, Nvidia reported second-quarter fiscal 2025 results on Aug. 28.

Of the 61 companies in our initial group of manufacturers and designers of semiconductors and related equipment, consensus revenue expectations through calendar year 2026 were available for 53 companies.

Of the 53 remaining companies, 17 are expected to grow revenues at an annual rate of more than 20% from calendar year 2024 through calendar year 2026. Revenue estimates for this calendar year are in millions.

Company

Ticker

Expected CAGR of sales over two years through 2026

Estimated sales in 2024

Estimated sales in 2025

Estimated sales in 2026

SolarEdge Technologies Inc.

SEDG

45.1%

$1,089

$1,905

$2,294

Wolfspeed Inc.

WOLF

39.8%

$868

$1,150

$1,696

Silicon Laboratories Inc.

PLATE

33.2%

$603

$903

$1,070

Nvidia Corp.

NVDA

32.9%

$120,095

$174,920

$212,166

Enphase Energy Inc.

ENPH

30.1%

$1,400

$2,026

$2,369

Cohu Inc.

COHU

28.4%

$406

$531

$670

SiTime Corp.

SITM

26.5%

$191

$245

$305

Marvell Technology Inc.

MRVL

26.5%

$5,531

$7,289

$8,850

MaxLinear Inc.

MXL

24.8%

$357

$446

$556

Micron Technology Inc.

I

24.4%

$29,600

$40,738

$45,781

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

AMD

24.1%

$25,599

$32,819

$39,448

First Solar Inc.

FSLR

22.4%

$4,489

$5,670

$6,723

Teradyne Inc.

TER

22.4%

$2,786

$3,424

$4,171

ASML Holding NV ADR

ASML

20.8%

$30,358

$40,016

$44,314

On to Innovation Inc.

ON

20.7%

$980

$1,157

$1,429

Universal Display Corp.

OLED

20.3%

$663

€757

$960

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. ADR

TSM

20.1%

$86,576

$106,839

$124,840

Source: FactSet

To put these expected sales growth rates into perspective, the estimated two-year sales CAGR for the PHLX Semiconductor Index through 2026 is 17.1%. This index has an adjusted market capitalization weighting capped at 8% when the underlying index is rebalanced quarterly.

Shares of SolarEdge Technologies Inc. SEDG, which tops the list, have had a brutal year, falling more than 80% through 2024 so far. The company makes technology for solar power generation and has been hit by a weak solar market and general industry pressure.

Despite analysts’ predictions for rapid revenue growth in the future, the company faces financial challenges elsewhere. Launching coverage on SolarEdge’s hold-rated shares earlier this month, Jefferies analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith said “the path forward is opaque with continued negative [free cash flow]SolarEdge has also become a popular short play, with short interest accounting for more than 30% of the float, according to FactSet data.

Other solar companies, including Enphase Energy Inc. ENPH, are also among the top-rated revenue growers. “We recognize the renewed acceleration in growth going forward, but ultimately see recovery and domestic content upside priced in with execution risk going forward,” Dumoulin-Smith wrote in including coverage of Enphase shares, also with a hold rating.

Wolfspeed Inc. WOLF ranks second on the list for expected sales CAGR through 2026. The company specializes in making silicon carbide electronic components for electric vehicles. It also supplies components for charging and energy storage equipment. The company is not expected to report quarterly profits over the next two years, according to FactSet consensus estimates. Most analysts have a neutral rating on Wolfspeed stock. In a note to clients on Aug. 22, following the company’s most recent quarterly report, Oppenheimer analyst Colin Rusch wrote that some investor concerns about the company’s financial health had been addressed by a reduction in planned capital spending and expectations of federal funding through the CHIPS Act.

Next up is Silicon Laboratories Inc. SLAB, a company that makes analog and mixed-signal chips. It is expected to report its second straight year of declining revenue in 2024 before a strong recovery in 2026.

That speaks to a general trend in the semiconductor sector. If you were to focus solely on the AI ​​craze, you’d think the chip sector was universally hot, but many market areas, including automotive and industrial semiconductors, have been under pressure recently. That sets companies up for big potential revenue recoveries if their end markets turn around.

The question of Nvidia’s forecast moving through calendar year 2026 is especially pertinent as investors mull AI returns. Mizuho desk-based analyst Jordan Klein wrote ahead of Nvidia’s late August earnings report that the key question on the buy side concerns the growth outlook for cloud capex in calendar year 2026 versus calendar year 2025.

“No one really knows,” he wrote. “Investors feel good about this year and 2025, but 6-8 months from now, [Nvidia’s stock] will exchange [calendar-year 2026 estimates] and they will be heavily dependent on the largest buyers of GPU and AI computing, or the cloud hyperscalers (vs. sovereign, enterprise and edge devices).”

Meanwhile, rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD sits just outside the top 10 in terms of expected CAGR through 2026. The company is trying to grab Nvidia’s dominant market share in AI GPUs, and it could also benefit if some of its non-AI businesses recover. For example, AMD’s gaming business saw a 61% revenue decline in the last quarter and is expected to post sharp declines in the next two quarters as well before returning to positive growth territory.

In AI, there’s plenty of market opportunity for AMD in the short term, but its rival certainly isn’t sitting still. Nvidia is targeting a one-year product cadence for new offerings, which should keep AMD hot on its heels.

Below is a summary of the opinions on these stocks among analysts working for brokerages and surveyed by FactSet, with the order of the groups unchanged:

Company

Ticker

Buy stock reviews

Share neutral reviews

Share sales reviews

Price September 9th

Consensus target price

Implied Upside Potential for 12 Months

SolarEdge Technologies Inc.

SEDG

17%

74%

9%

€17.94

€30.88

72%

Wolfspeed Inc.

WOLF

32%

57%

11%

€7.59

€18.71

147%

Silicon Laboratories Inc.

PLATE

42%

50%

8%

€105.54

€139.75

32%

Nvidia Corp.

NVDA

94%

6%

0%

€106.47

€149.12

40%

Enphase Energy Inc.

ENPH

55%

38%

7%

€103.04

€127.57

24%

Cohu Inc.

COHU

57%

29%

14%

€23.35

$32.71

40%

SiTime Corp.

SITM

86%

0%

14%

€133.53

€138.33

4%

Marvell Technology Inc.

MRVL

94%

6%

0%

€68.93

€93.25

35%

MaxLinear Inc.

MXL

45%

55%

0%

€13.33

$21.33

60%

Micron Technology Inc.

I

93%

5%

2%

€86.27

€171.13

98%

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

AMD

81%

19%

0%

€138.15

€186.67

35%

First Solar Inc.

FSLR

78%

22%

0%

$205.36

€291.94

42%

Teradyne Inc.

TER

53%

42%

5%

€124.20

€145.47

17%

ASML Holding NV ADR

ASML

77%

20%

3%

€749.82

$1,124.12

50%

On to Innovation Inc.

ON

100%

0%

0%

€180.63

$261.21

45%

Universal Display Corp.

OLED

75%

25%

0%

€190.24

€228.89

20%

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. ADR

TSM

95%

5%

0%

€162.78

€209.84

29%

Source: FactSet

Click on the tickers to learn more about each company, including news stories, stock prices, share price ratios, and financial information.

Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s guide to the wealth of information available for free on MarketWatch’s quote page.

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