5 Best Growth Stocks To Invest In Now

4. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 214

Share Price Gains Year-to-Date: 9.2%

At the end of the fourth quarter, 214 hedge funds were long Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL), with a total stake value of $28.8 billion.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is an interactive media and services company based in Mountain View, California. It develops and sells apps and digital content in Google Play and YouTube, among more.

Wedbush analysts maintained an Outperform rating and a $175 price target on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) on March 22.

Pershing Square Holdings said this about Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in its fourth-quarter 2023 investor letter:

“In early 2023, we initiated an investment in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), the parent company of Google, at a highly attractive valuation during a period when apprehension about the company’s competitive positioning in AI overshadowed the high-quality nature of its business and strong growth prospects.

Since we initiated our position, the company has delivered impressive operating results. With two of the highest ROI and most resilient ad formats in Search and YouTube, Google occupies a dominant position in the secularly fast-growing digital advertising market. As the digital advertising market recovered over the course of the year, revenue growth in Google’s advertising business accelerated from 3% in Q1 2023 to 10% in Q4 2023. Moreover, the company realized significant progress on its substantial margin expansion opportunity and maintained a robust capital return program. In 2023, operating profit margins expanded by approximately 225 basis points (bps), excluding one-time severance and real estate charges, as the Cloud segment reached breakeven profitability. We expect continued cost control, automation efficiencies, and operating leverage in under-earning segments (Cloud & YouTube) to sustain margin expansion as Google invests behind AI initiatives.

The company is using its ample free cash flow to repurchase approximately 4% of its outstanding shares on an annual basis…” (Click here to read the full text)