Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its fourth-quarter investor letter for “Polen International Growth Strategy”. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In 2025, foreign equity markets reached their highest returns in more than a decade, whereas Polan International Growth had flat returns. This was not attributed to weakening business fundamentals among its holdings, but the market’s preference for cyclically sensitive businesses. The strategy seeks to invest in companies with enduring competitive strengths, high returns on invested capital, and consistent earnings. The Strategy returned -2.21% (gross) and -2.52% (net) in Q4 compared to 5.05% return for MSCI ACWI (ex-USA). For 2025, the Strategy returned 0.68% (gross) and -0.52% (net) compared to 32.39% return for the Index. In addition, please check the Strategy’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Polen International Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML). ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) is a Dutch-based semiconductor company that provides lithography solutions. On March 17, 2026, ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) stock closed at $1,389.16 per share. One-month return of ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) was -5.42%, and its shares gained 89.02% over the past 52 weeks. ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) has a market capitalization of $533.2 billion.

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

"Finally, ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) delivered another solid quarter as semiconductor capital equipment (“semi-cap”) companies continue to benefit from investor optimism around AI. Simply stated, advanced chips sit at the epicenter of everything AI related 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’s business waned in the quarter, which helped ignite semi-cap stocks."

ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 101 hedge fund portfolios held ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 82 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 a list of AI stocks that will skyrocket. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 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.