Nvidia $NVDA, UnitedHealth $UNH, Meta $META Headline Prospero’s Bullish Short-Term Stock Picks

An examination of stocks attracting short-term institutional interest reveals a distinct, if somewhat bifurcated, strategy. The prevailing narrative is an overwhelming commitment to the artificial intelligence supply chain, encompassing everything from foundational chip manufacturing to the hyperscale cloud platforms deploying AI services. Yet, this aggressive growth posture is pragmatically hedged with defensive stalwarts and peppered with high-risk, idiosyncratic bets, reflecting a market that is simultaneously chasing momentum while keeping a wary eye on concentration risk.

The AI Infrastructure Nexus: A Multi-Layered Wager

The core of this bullish sentiment is anchored in a handful of companies that form the critical infrastructure for the ongoing AI buildout. This is not merely a bet on a single company, but on an entire ecosystem where participants are both partners and competitors.

The Indispensables: Nvidia and ASML

It is difficult to overstate the market dominance of Nvidia and ASML. Nvidia, powered by its CUDA architecture, has become the de facto standard for AI model training and inference, a position reflected in its extraordinary revenue growth. The company reported a staggering 262% year-over-year revenue increase in its first quarter of fiscal 2025, driven by its data centre segment.¹ Meanwhile, ASML holds a functional monopoly on the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines required to produce the advanced semiconductors that Nvidia and others design. ASML’s position as a critical bottleneck in the supply chain grants it immense pricing power and a deep order book, insulating it from short-term cyclicality.² Together, they represent a wager on the non-negotiable hardware foundation of the AI revolution.

The Cloud Titans’ AI Arms Race

Just above the hardware layer, the hyperscale cloud providers—Microsoft (Azure), Google (GCP), and to a lesser extent, Meta Platforms—are engaged in a capital-intensive race to integrate and monetise AI. Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI and the rapid integration of Copilot across its enterprise software suite have created a powerful new revenue stream. Similarly, Google is embedding its Gemini models across its search, cloud, and productivity platforms. Meta, while still bearing the heavy cost of its Reality Labs division, is leveraging AI to enhance the efficiency and targeting of its core advertising business, which remains a formidable cash flow engine.³ Oracle, a relative latecomer to the cloud infrastructure contest, is gaining traction by securing significant contracts for its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to train large language models, suggesting the demand for AI computation is broad enough to support more than just the top three players.

The Turnaround Gambit: Intel

Intel represents the contrarian position within the semiconductor space. While its peers have soared, Intel has been mired in a multi-year effort to reclaim its manufacturing leadership from rivals like TSMC. The company’s strategy hinges on its ambitious Intel Foundry Services (IFS) division, which aims to produce chips for other companies, including potential competitors. Success is far from assured and requires flawless execution on its process technology roadmap, particularly its 18A node. An investment in Intel is a bet on a successful, multi-billion-dollar industrial turnaround, offering significant upside if it succeeds but carrying substantial execution risk.

Defensive Ballast and Speculative Punts

Away from the technology focus, the inclusion of other names highlights a more nuanced portfolio construction designed to manage risk and capture opportunities outside the prevailing trend.

UnitedHealth: The Non-Correlated Anchor

UnitedHealth Group stands in stark contrast to the high-beta technology names. As a leader in healthcare insurance and services, its performance is driven by long-term demographic trends and healthcare spending rather than technological cycles. While the company faced recent headwinds from the cyberattack on its Change Healthcare subsidiary and concerns over rising medical loss ratios, its fundamental business remains a source of stable, predictable cash flow.⁴ In a portfolio heavily weighted towards volatile growth stocks, UNH acts as a defensive anchor, providing a degree of insulation from market corrections.

DoorDash and AMC: Navigating Profitability and Psychology

DoorDash represents the challenge facing many modern consumer discretionary companies: translating impressive top-line growth into sustainable profit. The company has seen its Gross Order Value (GOV) expand consistently, yet it continues to post GAAP net losses, with its most recent quarter showing a net loss of $25 million.⁵ While its adjusted EBITDA is positive, the market remains focused on whether its unit economics can support genuine profitability amidst intense competition and regulatory scrutiny over labour models. AMC Entertainment is an entirely different proposition. Its inclusion is less a reflection of its underlying business fundamentals—which remain challenged by high debt and shifting cinema attendance patterns—and more an acknowledgement of its status as a vehicle for retail sentiment. Trading in AMC is a pure play on market psychology and the potential for short-term, sentiment-driven price movements, a world away from the fundamental analysis applied to the rest of the list.

Comparative Fundamentals: A Snapshot

A look at the key metrics across these companies reveals the stark differences in valuation, growth, and risk profile that define this eclectic group.

Data as of market close on 20 June 2024. Market Cap and P/E figures are approximate and subject to market fluctuation. Source: Yahoo Finance, CompaniesMarketCap.com.

Strategic Implications and Forward View

This selection of equities is not a uniform bet on “the market” but rather a sophisticated barbell strategy. It combines a high-conviction, concentrated investment in the AI secular trend with a defensive healthcare position and a few high-risk, high-reward flyers. The underlying hypothesis seems to be that the AI buildout has durable momentum that can power through macroeconomic uncertainty, but it is wise to hold uncorrelated assets just in case.

The most compelling forward-looking question this list poses is about the dispersion of returns within the technology sector itself. The market has rewarded the clear winners like Nvidia, but the fates of the turnaround stories and the legacy players are far less certain. The ultimate speculative hypothesis is this: as the AI infrastructure matures, the primary source of alpha will shift from the “obvious” hardware winners to the second-derivative beneficiaries—perhaps companies in traditional sectors that successfully leverage AI for productivity gains, or the software firms that build indispensable applications on top of the new infrastructure. The real test will be identifying them before they become as consensus as the names on this list.

References

1. NVIDIA. (2024, May 22). NVIDIA Announces Financial Results for First Quarter Fiscal 2025. NVIDIA Newsroom. Retrieved from https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-announces-financial-results-for-first-quarter-fiscal-2025
2. ASML. (2024). ASML Q1 2024 results. Retrieved from https://www.asml.com/en/news/press-releases/2024/q1-2024-results
3. Meta. (2024, April 24). Meta Reports First Quarter 2024 Results. Meta Investor Relations. Retrieved from https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-details/2024/Meta-Reports-First-Quarter-2024-Results/default.aspx
4. UnitedHealth Group. (2024, April 16). UnitedHealth Group Reports First Quarter 2024 Performance. Retrieved from https://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/newsroom/2024/2024-04-16-uhg-reports-q1-2024-results.html
5. DoorDash, Inc. (2024, May 1). DoorDash Reports First Quarter 2024 Results. DoorDash Investor Relations. Retrieved from https://ir.doordash.com/news/news-details/2024/DoorDash-Reports-First-Quarter-2024-Results/default.aspx