The Most Popular Tech Stocks Among Hedge Funds: Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) Sink

#2 Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

– Hedge Funds with Long Positions (as of December 31, 2016): 139

– Value of Hedge Funds’ Holdings (as of December 31, 2016): $14.62 Billion

    Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)

– Hedge Funds with Long Positions (as of December 31, 2016): 126

– Value of Hedge Funds’ Holdings (as of December 31, 2016): $12.74 Billion

The number of hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey that were long Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) inched up by two during the fourth quarter, but those that were long Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) declined by 27 during the same time. The aggregate value of hedge funds holdings in both the Class A and Class C shares of Google’s holding company also dwindled during the fourth quarter. The aggregate value hedge fund’s Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) holdings fell by $164 million during the fourth quarter, while hedgies’ holdings in Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) took a considerably larger hit in comparison, of nearly $1.5 billion.

Like the other tech stocks discussed previously, both classes of Alphabet Inc’s stock have also done well this year, with GOOGL currently trading up by 7% year-to-date and GOOG trading up by 7.5%. However, the shares of both classes of stock have taken a beating recently after issues concerning advertising on the company’s YouTube platform came up last month. Even though the company apologized for running customer’s ads on videos that were deemed objectionable, recent reports suggest that this issue is still not completely resolved and that Alphabet can’t guarantee the same won’t continue happening. According to most analysts, the ad crisis could have a big impact on YouTube’s revenue in the coming quarters, but won’t make a large dent in Alphabet Inc.’s financials, as YouTube still contributes only a fraction to the company’s top-line. On April 2, analysts at Aegis reiterated their ‘Buy’ rating and $1,011 price target on Alphabet.

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