We recently published a list of 10 Best Major Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stands against other best major stocks to buy according to hedge funds.
After a notable growth of 25% for the broader market in 2024, the S&P 500 index gained a little under 4% in the first month of 2025. The stock market had a mixed start to 2025 after the U.S. tech companies took a massive hit from the launch of Deepseek’s R1 AI model. Despite a major blow, the tech-heavy NASDAQ 100 index has gained over 4.50% year-to-date.
READ ALSO: 10 Large-Cap Stocks Insiders Are Selling Recently
Inflation and Tariff Concerns
U.S. stocks fell on February 12 following the release of January inflation data. The consumer-price index (CPI) soared 3% in January from a year ago, exceeding economists’ estimates. The data has somewhat stoked investors’ concerns about price pressures and the worry that interest rates might not come down as expected.
January CPI usually indicates big price adjustments made by businesses at the start of the year. Moreover, the beginning of a new administration has an impact on businesses. According to Goldman Sachs Research’s chief US equity strategist David Kostin, every five-percentage-point increase in the US tariff rate is estimated to reduce S&P 500 EPS by roughly 1-2%.
Therefore, if the U.S. administration sustains the proposed tariff rates, a 25% tariff on imported goods from Mexico and Canada and an additional 10% tariff on imports from China would reduce S&P 500 EPS forecasts by nearly 2-3%, as per Goldman’s Research.
However, the tariff policy doesn’t slow down the AI investment by the U.S. tech giants as they continue to expand their AI-related services and products. Four out of the Big Five companies are projected to invest over $300 billion in 2025 building data centers to fuel the AI boom.
Our Methodology
We have listed the top 10 best major stocks based on hedge fund sentiment, according to Insider Monkey’s database. The best major stocks are ranked in ascending order of the number of hedge fund holders, as of Q3 2024.
Why do we care about what hedge funds do? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A user’s hands typing a search query into a Google Search box, emphasizing the company’s search capabilities.
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
No. of Hedge Fund Holders: 202
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) operates as a holding company and operates through subsidiaries. The company offers web-based searches, advertisements, software applications, enterprise solutions, commerce, and hardware products.
On February 5, Needham analyst Laura Martin maintained a price target of $225 on GOOGL shares, maintaining a Buy rating. Analysts believe that Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) growing cloud business makes it a promising stock. Martin remains bullish on the stock as the company posted strong revenue growth of 12% year-over-year in Q4 2024. The company revenue was mainly driven by robust performance in Google Search and Cloud. During Q4, Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Cloud and YouTube businesses generated over $110 billion in combined annual revenue. The company’s cloud business experienced a 30% revenue increase, driven by strong demand for AI-powered solutions and strategic deals over $1 billion.
Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) cloud business and UiPath Inc. (NYSE:PATH) are collaborating to help customers transform their enterprises with AI-powered automation. Oakmark Funds stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was the top contributor during the quarter. Despite ongoing litigation with the Department of Justice in its antitrust case, the U.S.-headquartered interactive media and services company’s stock price rose after posting solid third-quarter earnings. In the Search division, the company generated low-teens year-over-year revenue growth and management highlighted that they’re seeing strong user engagement with their new AI Overviews feature. The biggest upside surprise came from the Cloud division, where revenue growth accelerated to 35% and margins reached a record of 17%. This performance was driven by client demand for AI Infrastructure and Generative AI Solutions as well as core Google Cloud Platform (GCP) products. We continue to believe Alphabet is a collection of great businesses that can unlock further value over the long term through its world-class AI capabilities.”
Overall, GOOGL ranks 4th on our list of best major stocks to buy according to hedge funds. While we acknowledge the potential of GOOGL to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than GOOGL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
