UBS Introduces Key Investment Themes and Stocks to Lead the Next Decade

UBS analysts identified artificial intelligence, energy and resource innovation, and longevity industries as the main pillars that will support the stock market over the next 10 years.

UBS explained that these three trends represent not only structural long-term investment opportunities but also strategically accessible areas in the short term.

Based on these major trends, UBS selected and introduced several notable companies within the global stock market.

The first is ASML, a world-leading company that manufactures lithography equipment used in semiconductor manufacturing.

Lithography equipment can be simply described as essential machinery for making semiconductor chips, and ASML has steadily increased its market share worldwide.

UBS regards its 2025 and 2030 target prices as realistic and appraises ASML as an attractive company with a stable business model, although it cautions that revenue recovery may not be uniform.

Shell is one of the world’s five major oil and gas companies, with liquefied natural gas (LNG) operations and over 45,000 gas stations globally.

UBS analyzed that this gas station network provides strong consumer insights and supports Shell’s position amid the energy transition.

Shell’s focus on profitability and the rise in earnings per share due to share buybacks are seen as benefits to shareholders, though risks such as low oil prices, exploration failures, and tax policy changes remain.

Luxury brand Hermès is famous for its high-end handbags and leather goods and is evaluated as showing resilience amid economic uncertainties due to its high profit margins.

However, potential risks include a global economic slowdown, reduced consumer spending, rising raw material prices, and increased US tariffs.

Banco Santander is expected to achieve stable growth thanks to its solid business network across Europe and Latin America, with its Brazilian division entering a phase of improved interest income, which is a positive sign.

Still, UBS warns of risks including economic uncertainty, interest rate fluctuations, and emerging market volatility.

Sunrise Communications, the second-largest telecommunications provider in Switzerland, recently spun off as a separate company and recorded a net loss in 2024 due to high depreciation costs, which UBS says should not cause major concern as it is not a cash outflow.

Future profits are expected to be stable or grow slowly, with slight market share gains anticipated.

To briefly explain UBS’s terms: 'net loss' means the company spent more than it earned during a period, and 'depreciation' is an accounting method that reflects the decline in value of assets like machinery or buildings over time but does not affect cash flow significantly.

UBS offers these themes and companies as long-term investment opportunities while emphasizing careful examination of the risks each company faces.

Considering that recent technological innovation and energy transitions are likely to be major factors moving stock prices, focusing investments on these large themes seems meaningful.