Hedge Funds Scooped Up GOOG, META and AMZN in Recent Months

The Magnificent Seven stocks were heavily out of favor in the first four months of the year. And while many investors threw in the towel on the famed stocks in the first quarter, as Jim Cramer deemed them no longer the market leaders, a number of smart money managers topped up their positions on weakness.

Recently, 13F filings shone some light on what the top hedge fund managers were up to in the first quarter. And while we’ll need to wait a bit to see what they did in the second quarter, which included the eventual market bottom for the Mag Seven and the broad S&P 500 following the Liberation Day selling spree, I do think the first-quarter moves made by some big-league investors tells a hopeful story for the Mag Seven. Of course, there was also notable selling activity among the famed Mag Seven tech names. Regardless, I found it intriguing that a handful of Mag Seven stocks dominated the list of most bought names in the first quarter of 2025.

Personally, I think it’s not a good time to give up on the Mag Seven cohort, as they continue to add to the strength they’ve garnered in May. Indeed, selling the Mag Seven in May and going away would have been the wrong call this year.

But is it time to follow some famed funds back into the names on weakness? Or is it best to wait for the next round of 13F filings that’ll reveal more on the moves made during the scary April depths? Time will tell. Either way, let’s dig into three notable pick-ups that should have retail investors’ attention.

Alphabet

A lot of big-money managers threw in the towel on Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stock in the first quarter. Indeed, there were more sells than buys with the name.

Still, much of the selling activity from the big money was in the form of modest trims. As many hedge funds trimmed their positions in the face of Trump tariffs, Seth Klarman of Baupost Group added to his position significantly (by over 45%). As a famed value investor, Klarman’s big vote of confidence in Alphabet, I believe, is far more remarkable than the modest selling done by most other big money managers in Q1.

Indeed, the first quarter wasn’t the best time to be buying up Alphabet shares as they eventually suffered a near-28% drop from peak to trough. In any case, the stock’s back on the mend, and I think it’s hard to argue the case against GOOG being a value stock right here as it sports a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio in the high-teens. In any case, GOOG stock is now one of Baupost’s larger holdings, and I think that suggests the AI tech darling is among the cheapest of the Mag Seven.

Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) was another Mag Seven name that experienced some notable buys in the first quarter. Of course, many hedge funds pared their positions as well. But perhaps what was most striking was that there were three notable funds that initiated a position in the social-media juggernaut. Indeed, such new positions, I believe, suggest it’s still not too late to buy the name amid its red-hot multi-year run.

The stock still looks cheap at 25.2 times trailing P/E. And with Zuckerberg recently disclosing that Meta AI has around 1 billion monthly active users (MAUs), I think the market may still be underestimating the firm’s AI potential as its LLaMA 4 looks to gain a bit of an upper hand over ChatGPT and other popular offerings on the market. With the firm shuffling things around in its AI team in a bid to move faster, perhaps it’s time to keep watch of the name as it ricochets back.

Amazon

Finally, we have Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), which had a good number of buyers and sellers in the first quarter. And though we haven’t yet seen the hands of hedge funds for the second quarter, Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman recently disclosed his firm’s new position in Amazon, which, I believe, speaks the loudest.

Indeed, Ackman was quite vocal about the value to be had in the e-commerce and AI juggernaut. At 33.5 times trailing P/E, AMZN is close to the cheapest it’s been in a number of years. With the company doubling down on a number of AI fronts, I think it could prove smart to brave the dip in what could be the most disruptive Mag Seven member.

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