5 Best American Stocks To Buy Heading into 2024

4. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 204

Justin Patterson at Keybanc maintains an Overweight rating and a $155 price target on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) as of October 13.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is a big tech company based in Mountain View, California. It offers Google Cloud, Chrome, Gmail, and multiple other products and services.

We saw 204 hedge funds long Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the second quarter, with a total stake value of $17.3 billion.

Oakmark Funds said the following about Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in its third-quarter 2023 investor letter:

“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)(U.S.) was the top contributor for the fiscal year. Alphabet reported multiple strong sets of earnings releases over the past year, and its results generally exceeded consensus estimates across key metrics. Most recently, search revenue growth accelerated from 5% to 6.5% sequentially in the second quarter, a notable development given lingering economic uncertainty and broader advertising weakness. Cloud growth remained at 30%, stable versus the previous quarter, despite continued headwinds from customers optimizing cloud usage. Margin progression also continued, and cloud margins reached 5%. CFO Ruth Porat emphasized that the largest impact from the company’s cost[1]saving initiatives will not be felt until 2024. YouTube continues to prioritize its Shorts segment, which is experiencing strong viewership growth. Although this is a near-term revenue headwind, we believe Shorts’ monetization will accelerate over time. Addressing the year’s hottest topic, CEO Sundar Pichai said Alphabet is an “AI-first company” that is “extremely well-positioned as AI reaches an inflection point.” At Alphabet’s annual developer conference in May, it showcased an impressive array of new AI-powered consumer tools to be rolled out over the course of the year. Investors reacted positively to these presentations, which highlighted the company’s impressive innovations in AI technologies. Overall, we believe the company is positioned well to reap the benefits of the scale of its search business and years of its investment into AI capabilities. We also appreciate that the company is undergoing a transformation on how it views cost discipline and efficiency.”