Loomis Sayles, an investment management firm, released its “Global Growth Fund” investor letter for Q2 2026. The fund returned 6.43%, underperforming the MSCI ACWI Index’s 14.93% return. The fund employs a long-term private equity investment strategy, focusing on high-quality businesses with sustainable competitive advantages, investing at significant discounts to intrinsic value. At quarter-end, the fund maintained an overweight in communication services, consumer discretionary and healthcare sectors, and an underweight in information technology, financials, industrials, and consumer staples sectors. The letter also highlights the fund’s top five holdings as key picks for 2026.
In its Q2 2026 investor letter, Loomis Sayles Global Growth Fund highlighted Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) as a leading performance contributor. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), the parent company of Google, offers various platforms and services, including online search and advertising, cloud solutions, and artificial intelligence. On August 21, 2026, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) closed at $341.75 per share, reflecting a market capitalization of $4.2 trillion. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) posted a one-month return of 4.65%, while its shares gained 63.39% over the past 52 weeks.
Loomis Sayles Global Growth Fund stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its Q2 2026 investor letter:
“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is a holding company that owns a collection of businesses, the largest and most important of which by far is Google. Google is the global leader in online search and advertising and also offers cloud solutions to businesses and consumers globally, with a goal of organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful. Google dominates the US and global traditional search market with a greater than 80% share of search volumes. As a function of seeing more searches, Google is able to provide better search results, resulting in a higher customer conversion rate for advertisers and enabling Google to capture a leading share of search revenue. Google’s large network of consumers, advertisers, and publishers is a powerful business ecosystem as third-party participants such as marketing affiliates and independent software vendors add value to the user experience. As a result, we believe consumers get their best and most relevant search results and advertisers get the best returns on their advertising dollars. Such a robust ecosystem attracts increasing numbers of participants and thereby creates a virtuous cycle for a sustainable business model and long-term growth. In its emerging cloud business, we estimate that Google captures less than 10% market share of the global market for public cloud services. We believe Google remains one of the few global companies that has the scale, research and development (R&D), and technical talent to effectively compete in this market over the long term. Non-Google businesses comprise less than 1% of Alphabet revenues and are held in the company’s Other Bets segment…”
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) ranks 7th on the list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. According to data, 201 hedge fund portfolios held Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) at the end of the first quarter, compared to 203 in the previous quarter. In 2025, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) achieved its first-ever $400 billion annual revenue and in Q1 2026 its consolidated revenue reached $109.9 billion, up 22% or 19% in constant currency. While the potential of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) as an investment is acknowledged, certain AI stocks may offer greater upside potential with less downside risk.
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