4. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)
Number of Hedge Funds: 157
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a Mountain View-based technology firm. It is most famous for owning and operating internet-based search engine Google, but also offers other products like Android, Google Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play, and YouTube. It is one of the big five technology companies in the US and diversified business in recent years by venturing into artificial intelligence, smartphones, autonomous vehicles and the healthcare industry. Alphabet was founded as Google in 1998 and is fourth on our list of 10 best tech stocks to invest in for long term gains.
On April 22, the company said it backed plans by President Biden to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the US by half by the end of this decade. Google, owned by Alphabet, was one of the first tech firm to become carbon neutral back in 2007. On April 21, the Israeli government announced that Google had won a contract to provide cloud services to the country’s military.
Out of the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Australia-based investment firm Bronte Capital is a leading shareholder in the firm with 48,493 shares worth more than $100 million.
Our calculations show that Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) ranks 6th in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds.
Alger Spectra Fund, in their Q1 2021 investor letter, mentioned Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). Here is what Alger Spectra Fund has to say about Alphabet Inc. in their Q1 2021 investor letter:
“Alphabet Inc. was among the top contributors to performance during the quarter. Alphabet is a leading search provider and as such a beneficiary in the share shift of advertising dollars from traditional mediums like television, radio and newspapers to digital platforms. The company is a leader in implementing artificial intelligence and in developing autonomous vehicles. It also provides cloud computing services and it owns the highly trafficked YouTube property. Alphabet issued a strong quarterly report highlighted by acceleration that exceeded prior strong growth trends in both revenue and profitability. Results of the company’s search service and YouTube strongly exceeded expectations. The strength of search results, driven by e-commerce-related demand and YouTube results, were propelled by returning brand advertisement in a sequentially improving economy. The revenues acceleration was seen in cloud services as well as because of continuing corporate spending on digitization. Earnings exhibited strong operating leverage as costs were down year over year due to slowing headcount growth, as well as diminished travel and office space costs. While regulatory scrutiny remains an overhang, the intensity of investor concern has moderated recently as the late 2020 U.S. Department of Justice anti-trust case against the company had a narrow scope, primarily alleging that the company has improperly established agreements with various phone manufacturers, including Apple, to ensure that Google is the default search engine across devices. Investors have interpreted the lawsuit as potentially less damaging to Alphabet than other broader more threating possibilities.”
