Increased Investor Optimism Lifted Alphabet (GOOGL) in Q4

Hotchkis & Wiley, an investment management company, released its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter for the “Hotchkis & Wiley Global Value Fund.” A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Fund outperformed the MSCI World Value Index in the fourth quarter, returning 3.80% vs. 3.34% for the Index. The Fund returned 23.77% YTD compared to 20.79% for the Index. Positive stock selection led the Fund’s performance both in Q4 and for the calendar year. In 2025, stocks outside the US significantly outperformed those within, yet the valuation gap remained largely unchanged, and the Fund continued to be overweight in non-US equities. The firm views the potential of certain software companies to be very attractive, given the current market conditions. Please review the Fund’s top 5 holdings to gain insight into their key selections for 2025.

In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Hotchkis & Wiley Global Value Fund highlighted Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) as one of its leading individual contributors. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL), the parent company of Google, offers various platforms and services operating through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The one-month return for Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was 7.33%, and its shares gained 65.79% over the last 52 weeks. On January 29, 2026, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stock closed at $338.25 per share, with a market capitalization of $4.097 trillion.

Hotchkis & Wiley Global Value Fund stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:

"Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is a holding company whose primary subsidiary is Google, which is the largest advertising company in the world. Other than Search, Alphabet’s other businesses are its enterprise cloud platform and venture-stage companies collectively reported as “Other Bets”. The company’s stock outperformed following strong 3Q25 results that beat expectations across the board, increasing investor confidence in the company’s ability to convert AI opportunities into growth. That outperformance continued as Google delivered strong new AI products that appear to be taking material share of Consumer Chatbot activity from OpenAI’s ChatGPT."

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is in fourth position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. According to our database, 243 hedge fund portfolios held Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) at the end of the third quarter, up from 219 in the previous quarter. In the third quarter of 2025, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) achieved its first-ever $100 billion in revenue. While we acknowledge the potential of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

In another article, we covered Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and shared the list of stocks Jim Cramer discussed. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.