Artisan Partners: “Alphabet (GOOG) will Continue to be a Strong Compounder of Value”

Artisan Partners, a high value-added investment management firm, published its “Artisan Value Fund” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of 4.48% was recorded by its Investor Class: ARTLX, 4.55% by its Advisor Class: APDLX, and 4.54% was gained by its Institutional Class: APHLX for the fourth quarter of 2021, all below the Russell 1000® Value Index that delivered a 7.77% return, and the Russell 1000® Index that gained 9.78% for the same period. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.

Artisan Value Fund, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and discussed its stance on the firm. Alphabet Inc. is a Mountain View, California-based multinational technology conglomerate holding company with a $1.7 trillion market capitalization. GOOG delivered a -7.02% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 32.09%. The stock closed at $2,690.39 per share on February 25, 2022.

Here is what Artisan Value Fund has to say about Alphabet Inc. in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“Overall top contributors (includes) Alphabet. Advertising is recovering, and Alphabet is a key beneficiary through its search business and online video business YouTube. We continue to see large profit pools for Alphabet in the early stages of monetization, along with the migration of advertising dollars away from traditional mediums, like TV, to online search and video. These factors give us confidence Alphabet continues to have a long runway to grow revenue and profits. In addition, Alphabet’s cost controls are improving, which is driving more revenue growth to the bottom line. Finally, management has begun to aggressively return capital to shareholders, which we think is another lever that is increasing per share value of the business. We view Alphabet as one of the best businesses in the world, capable of expanding revenues at a rapid rate for years to come, with a bulletproof balance sheet and an average asking price. It’s a name we’ve owned since 2012, and we believe Alphabet will continue to be a strong compounder of value in the future.”

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Our calculations show that Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) ranks 5th on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. GOOG was in 158 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 156 funds in the previous quarter. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) delivered a -5.80% return in the past 3 months.

In February 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on GOOG in another article. You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.

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