Burke Wealth Management, an investment management company, released its “Focused Growth Strategy” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The market had another outstanding year in 2024, with the S&P 500 rising 25.0%. The strategy had an even better year, with net returns of 28.4%. Looking a bit closer, it is clear that, similar to 2023, 2024 had a rise that was appreciated by everyone, but the overall market returns were concentrated in a small handful of stocks. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Burke Wealth Management emphasized stocks such as Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG). Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), the parent company of Google, offers various platforms and services operating through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The one-month return of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was -13.07%, and its shares gained 8.68% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On March 18, 2025, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) stock closed at $162.67 per share with a market capitalization of $1.97 trillion.
Burke Wealth Management stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
Alphabet: We parted ways with long-term holding Alphabet during the fourth quarter. We’ve owned Alphabet since the inception of the Focused Growth strategy so obviously, the company has many positive attributes that we admire. That remains the case. We have long contended that Google search is the best business in the world. However, developments over the past couple of years on the competitive front (generative AI search) and the regulatory/legal front have put the sustainability of Google’s search monopoly at legitimate risk for the first time since Microsoft launched Bing in 2009. We cut our weighting in Google in half last year as we wanted to take some time to better assess the threat of generative AI driven search to its business model. To be fair, this emerging threat has been something more akin to a gathering storm than a tornado. Capital continues to flow into the space both from start-ups and the Microsoft/Open AI collaboration. Thus far, this has not resulted in a material erosion of market share but it is certainly something requiring continued monitoring….” (Click here to read the full text)
A laptop and phone open to Google’s services in an everyday setting.
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is in 7th position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 174 hedge fund portfolios held Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 160 in the previous quarter. In 2024, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) achieved a revenue growth of 14% compared to 2023, reaching $350 billion. For the fourth quarter, the revenue was $96.5 billion, reflecting a 12% increase in both reported and constant currency. While we acknowledge the potential of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we discussed Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and shared the list of best strong stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.