Bill Gates’ 2022 Portfolio: 4 Stocks to Sell

2. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 158

Reduction In Stake: 100%

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) stock was completely sold off from the portfolio of Bill Gates in the first quarter of 2022. The tech giant was reported in the portfolio of 158 hedge funds according to Insider Monkey’s Q4 2021 database. This shows a positive trend from the previous quarter where the number of bullish hedge funds bets on the firm stood at 156.

On April 27, Jefferies analyst Brent Thill lowered the firm’s price target on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) to $3,400 from $3,600 and reiterated a ‘Buy’ rating on the company shares. The analyst noted that the firm’s Search and Cloud business saw healthy growth, but YouTube advertising revenue missed consensus estimates for three consecutive quarters with headwinds looking set to continue into the next quarter. He lowered his 2022 estimates for gross and net revenue, operating margin and EPS after the company announced its Q1 results.

For Q1 2022, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) posted EPS of $24.62, falling below consensus estimates by $0.93. Revenue of $68 billion for the quarter recorded a jump of 22.95% year-on-year, and also outperformed estimates by $124.6 million.

Investment firm Baron Funds talked about Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its Q1 2022 investor letter, stating:

“We have modestly reduced the size of our position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (from 6.5% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021 to 5.3% as of the end of the first quarter of 2022), after the stock rallied 64% in 2021 and continued outperforming during the first quarter, declining just 3%.”