Couch Potato Stock Portfolio: 5 Best Stocks To Buy

4. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 204

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is a significant holding of several total market index funds including Vanguard U.S. Total Market Index ETF (VUN), the Vanguard Index 500 Fund (VFIAX) and Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI). Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s dominance in the search engine market, its Cloud computing growth, and its investments in futuristic sectors make it one of the best stock picks for couch potato portfolio.

As of the end of the first quarter of 2023, 204 hedge funds in Insider Monkey’s database of 943 hedge funds were long Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL). The most notable stakeholder of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was Natixis Global Asset Management’s Harris Associates which owns a $3.83 billion stake in the company.

Lakehouse Global Growth Fund made the following comment about Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its April 2023 investor letter:

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) reported a modest quarterly result, with revenue and earnings per share up 2.6% and down 4.9% year-on-year, respectively. It was a mixed quarter with a weak advertising market offset by strong momentum in Google Cloud and growth in the YouTube subscription business. Advertisers continued to pull back on spending during the period, though we are starting to see quarter-on-quarter improvements in the performance of Google Search and YouTube ads. The highlight of the quarter was Google Cloud’s strong operational results, with revenues up 28% while posting profitability. This was driven by strong relationships with large enterprises and the partner ecosystems that have been built over the past four years. Moving forward, the opportunity for Alphabet to deliver consistent profitable growth relies on its ability to control costs and improve productivity. The recent restructuring round is a step in the right direction and we believe that management will be able to efficiently manage its costs while going after growth opportunities.”