It is been a large yr for Major Tech, with U.S. favorites Nvidia and Meta Platforms amid the stocks that have soared in 2023. But for those buyers who concern they might have missed the boat, portfolio manager Karen Kharmandarian has an less than-the-radar global tech pick. He likes Japanese industrial automation firm Keyence , which will make manufacturing facility automation devices. “This firm would be a person we would choose to U.S. organizations when it arrives to machine vision methods,” Kharmandarian, senior portfolio supervisor at Thematics Asset Administration, informed CNBC Professional on Nov. 8. Equipment eyesight programs use cameras and other engineering to assistance automate inspections at production amenities. Keyence’s counterparts in the U.S. involve Cognex and Zebra Systems , which the two manufacture machine vision units and similar technologies. “Keyence possibly has superior know-how than these providers in the U.S. It has pretty great management and went by Covid almost unscathed in terms of procurement of important elements to design and style the goods. [We like it for its] eye-catching engineering and diversified markets,” Kharmandarian extra. He oversees all around $650 million in belongings less than Thematics Asset Management’s AI and Robotics Fund, which seeks to obtain “eye-catching gems” inside of the tech space. 6861.T-JP YTD mountain Yr-to-day shares in Keyence Calendar year-to-day, shares in Keyence had been up around 22% to 62,280 Japanese Yen ($418.95) on Nov. 20. His opinions are echoed by Jason Kondo , an fairness analyst at Morningstar, who mentioned soon after its final earnings report that it had outperformed its friends. “We attribute this to Keyence’s strong know-how with equipment vision/sensors, which has enabled the firm to present minimal-price tag remedies that right away know cost savings and tackle labor shortages,” he added. Kondo — who considers Keyence’s shares “quite valued” — has taken care of his fair benefit estimate on Keyence at 58,000 Japanese Yen. Of 18 analysts covering Keyence, 15 have a buy or obese rating on the inventory with an ordinary selling price focus on of 74,676.50 Japanese Yen, in accordance to FactSet information. This gives the shares upside opportunity of close to 20%.