5 Best Long-Term Stocks To Buy Now

2. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 153

Wall Street is bullish on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG). This August, Tigress Financial analyst Ivan Feinseth raised his price target on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) to $186 from $183 and maintained a Strong Buy rating on the share. On October 4, BofA analyst Justin Post revised his price target on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) to $114 from $125 and maintained a Buy rating on the shares.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has a rich portfolio of products and is leading a variety of industries, including cloud, data centers, AI, machine learning, and other high-growth industries that are expected to dominate the tech sector. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is one of the best long-term stocks to invest in now because of the company’s current valuation, free cash flows, and profitability. As of October 5, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is trading at a PE multiple of 19x, has an operating margin of 29.6%, and has free cash flows of $65 billion.

At the close of Q2 2022, 153 hedge funds disclosed ownership of stakes in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG). These funds held collective stakes of roughly $22 billion in the company. As of June 30, TCI Fund Management is the largest shareholder in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and has stakes worth $5.4 billion.

Here is what Lakehouse Capital had to say about Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its second-quarter 2022 investor letter:

“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) reported another strong quarterly result despite the tough macroeconomic conditions. Revenue increased by 13% as Search proved resilient, primarily led by strength in the travel and retail verticals. YouTube advertising growth was lighter and moderated due to a tough comparison period and a general softening in brand advertising spend. That said, YouTube’s user engagement and time spent still continues to grow which bodes well for future monetisation opportunities. Google Cloud outpaced the company’s overall growth with revenue increasing by 36% and while it has yet to show any signs of profitability, we remain supportive of Alphabet continuing to reinvest in its cloud business given the size of the market opportunity ahead. On the cost front, the company added another 10,000 employees during the quarter, but notably, the CFO mentioned that hiring will likely slow down over the next twelve months as the company focuses on greater operating efficiency. Overall, we’re pleased with how the company has performed and are confident that management will be able to control costs, if or when the economic environment becomes more challenging.”