Morgan Stanley says these 6 stocks are much cheaper alternatives to Big Tech

Published Mon, Jun 28 202110:30 PM EDTUpdated Mon, Jun 28 202110:55 PM EDT

When it comes to technology, Morgan Stanley says it's "Europe's time to shine." Its analysts have named their six favorite stocks across fields like electric cars, drones, 3D-printing and sustainable technologies. The analysts and strategists, led by Edward Stanley, said many of Europe's most innovative companies play a crucial role in so-called "innovation stacks" that underpin projects like NASA's space helicopter. "We believe there are six companies whose world-class innovation stacks give them clear long-term advantages over regional and global peers," they wrote in the note dated June 17. Here are the stocks, all rated overweight by the bank: ASML — With a market cap of around 240 billion euros ($286 billion), Dutch firm ASML is one of Europe's most valuable tech firms. The company makes lithography equipment that brings together high-tech hardware and software to control the chip manufacturing process down to the nanometer level. "The lithography tools that ASML produces are key enablers for the continued shrinkage of integrated circuits," the analysts wrote. ASML currently has around 90% of the world's lithography market and Morgan Stanley thinks demand for its equipment will surge as chips get smaller. The bank has a target share price of 590 euros. Dassault Systemes — French industrial software maker Dassault Systems is in the "early stages of a major product cycle" and is about to launch new products in new industries, according to Morgan Stanley. The firm, which has a market cap of around 50 billion euros, is "well positioned" to address the digitalization of the manufacturing industry and the healthcare industry following its acquisition of Medidata, the analysts said. "We believe management's long-term/visionary approach to positioning the company for the future through internal R & D and strategic M & A further cements its position as an innovation leader," they added. Morgan Stanley's target price for the shares is 187 euros. Evolution Gaming — Founded in Sweden in 2006, Evolution is a casino game developer that is focused on the "live" vertical. The company develops, produces and licenses games that are then hosted on its customers' sites. "As the dominant games supplier in the fastest growing vertical in global gambling, Evolution is well positioned to benefit from the structural shift of casino to online," wrote the analysts, who say there is a "strong innovation culture" within the company. "We think Evolution's game innovation will continue to broaden its addressable market, and maintain a healthy gap to the competition, leading to high revenue growth sustained for longer," they added. Its shares are currently around 1,477 Swedish Krona, and Morgan Stanley's target price is 1750 Swedish Krona. Ocado — U.K. ecommerce firm Ocado runs a fully online grocery retail operation. The company says it did 325,000 orders per week in 2019 and has an active customer base of 795,000 people. "Ocado is the company within the online grocery space with the most comprehensive and differentiated solutions for its customers," wrote the analysts. "Online grocery is the channel within grocery that is growing the most and given how underpenetrated it is, this is likely to continue over the next few years." They praised the firm's investment in robots that can find and pack grocery items. The analysts' target price is £28.13, while the stock was trading at £20.19 as markets closed on Monday. Shop Apotheke — Netherlands-based Shop Apotheke makes money by selling over-the-counter medication, beauty and personal care products online. Morgan Stanley expects the company to benefit from an aging population and a channel shift. " We estimate the Western Europe pharmacy market is currently worth €260bn, 80% of which is prescription medication (Rx)," the analysts wrote. "Yet online penetration of Rx is still very low on our estimates. However, regulatory changes are set to accelerate channel shift to online, with Germany at the center of this opportunity as eprescriptions (eRx) there will become mandatory by January 2022." Morgan Stanley's target price for the shares is 230 euros. Shares closed at 163 euros on Monday. Teleperformance — Morgan Stanley's analysts described Teleperformance as the global leader in outsourced customer service. "Teleperformance has long been a growth story," they said, adding that it has a healthy balance of new versus existing customers and from a variety of end-markets. "Management's ability to foresee changes in the market means Teleperformance is a leader in fields such as EV charging customer service and e-commerce relationships, which has allowed the company to consistently outpace peers," they said. They gave the stock a target price of 370 euros, higher than Monday's close of 346 euros. Capital is flowing into European start-ups and there are now over 100 businesses in Europe valued at over $1 billion. However the continent is yet to produce a tech giant on the same scale as a Google or an Apple in the U.S., an Alibaba in China, or a Samsung in South Korea. "More private equity money is being channeled into European start-ups than ever before and we believe that, while the US and China are ostensibly more 'obvious' thematic investing regions, European investors can benefit from the same themes at markedly cheaper valuations," the Morgan Stanley analysts wrote.

Integrated circuits on a circuit board.

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