Does Arm Holdings (ARM) Offer an Attractive Risk Reward Opportunity?

Soumya Eswaran

Wed, May 20, 2026 at 9:44 AM EDT 3 min read

Loomis Sayles, an investment management company, released its “Global Growth Fund” investor letter for the first quarter of 2026.  A copy of the letter is available to download here. The fund reported -13.09% in the first quarter, lagging the MSCI ACWI Index Net's -3.20% return. Stock selection in the financials and information technology sectors contributed positively to relative performance. The Firm maintained a long-term investment strategy, concentrating on high-quality businesses with sustainable competitive advantages and profitable growth when available at discounts to intrinsic value. Please review the Fund’s top five holdings to gain insights into their key selections for 2026.

In its first-quarter 2026 investor letter, Loomis Sayles Global Growth Fund highlighted Arm Holdings plc (NASDAQ:ARM) as a leading performance contributor. Arm Holdings plc (NASDAQ:ARM) is a UK-based technology company that develops and licenses central processing unit products and related technologies for semiconductor companies and original equipment manufacturers. On May 19, 2026, Arm Holdings plc (NASDAQ:ARM) closed at $223.15 per share. One-month return of Arm Holdings plc (NASDAQ:ARM) was 13.52%, and its shares gained 71.06% over the past 52 weeks. Arm Holdings plc (NASDAQ:ARM) has a market capitalization of $237.43 billion.

Loomis Sayles Global Growth Fund stated the following regarding Arm Holdings plc (NASDAQ:ARM) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:

Arm Holdings plc (NASDAQ:ARM) is the world’s leading microprocessor intellectual property (IP) supplier. The company develops and licenses its microprocessor IP technology to a network of partners to facilitate the design and manufacture of semiconductor chips used in a wide range of end markets, with a primary focus on mobile, cloud, automotive, and IoT (internet of things). Arm’s clients include most of the world’s leading semiconductor companies, which pay licensing fees to utilize the company’s industry-standard technologies and ongoing royalties for the resulting chips incorporating its technology. While it can take in excess of five years before newly licensed technology is commercialized into new products, the resulting royalty payments to Arm can span decades. We owned Arm in our large cap and all cap growth portfolios from 2012 until it was acquired by SoftBank Group in 2016. Under SoftBank, the company invested substantially in research and development (R&D) and accelerated its pace of innovation. As a result, Arm launched Armv9, its most advanced processor architecture, and its Neoverse microarchitecture that now enables the company to effectively compete in the data center business….” (Click here to read the full text)