September didn't live up to its historical weakness for the mega-cap indices, but it certainly put a hurting on sectors, industries, and individual stocks. The S&P 500 (SPX) closed the month with a tiny loss, the S&P 100 (OEX) was up 0.6%, the Invesco SPX Top 50 ETF (XLG) rallied 2%, the iShares Top 20 ETF (TOPT) popped 4%, and the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) rose 3.3%. The S&P Midcap 400 fell 4% while the S&P SmallCap 600 lost 6%.

Alphabet is a holding company that wholly owns internet giant Google. The California-based company derives slightly less than 90% of its revenue from Google services, the vast majority of which is advertising sales. Alongside online ads, Google services houses sales stemming from Google’s subscription services (YouTube TV and YouTube Music, among others), platforms (sales and in-app purchases on Play Store), and devices (Chromebooks, Pixel smartphones, and smart home products such as Chromecast). Google’s cloud computing platform accounts for roughly 10% of Alphabet’s revenue. The firm’s investments in up-and-coming technologies such as self-driving cars (Waymo), health (Verily), and internet access (Google Fiber) make up the rest.

In our list this week, we review some of the top holdings in the Argus Model Portfolios. Our portfolio managers strive to achieve the best mix of stocks for the highest returns while adhering to the mandates of each portfolio. Our portfolios are thus dynamic, but intended for long-term gains. As such, the holdings generally turn over twice per year to allow the stocks time to grow according to our outlook. Our model portfolios were the topic of our September webinar. Each portfolio manager reviewed the mandate of their portfolio and described the criteria for stock picking and overall portfolio management. The following are some of the current top holdings in our major portfolios.

Vickers Stock Research, a subsidiary of Argus Research Group, tracks and analyzes insider trading and institutional stock ownership trends. Form 13-Fs, which institutions must file to report their holdings, are due 45 days after the end of calendar quarters, and have now come in for 2Q26. We like to review the 13Fs of the major investors -- including Two Sigma, Ark Investments, Citadel, and Berkshire Hathaway, among others -- in order to determine their core holdings and new purchases. Here are some recent new purchases and key holdings of some of the bigger institutional investors, according to Vickers. The ratings noted are the Argus rating.