Is Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) an “Under Appreciated” Stock?

Weitz Investment Management, an investment management firm, published its “Value Fund” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. In its letter, the fund mentioned that it knows very little in economics, politics, and investor psychology is predictable. The fund believes, though, that business value is (roughly) measurable and that it (eventually) exerts a gravitational pull on a company’s stock price. According to Weitz Investment, when confidence is shaken and markets are volatile, active managers have the raw material they need to add value for investors. We’re looking forward to an interesting year. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.

Weitz Investment Management, 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 $1.8 trillion market capitalization. GOOG delivered a -6.21% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 42.74%. The stock closed at $2,713.97 per share on January 31, 2022.

Here is what Weitz Investment Management has to say about Alphabet Inc. in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“A couple of other platform companies deserve a mention as well. Meta Platforms and Alphabet have both been under regulatory scrutiny that has affected their valuations. The threats of punitive action are real, but we have tried to be imaginative about how onerous any fines, rule changes or forced divestitures might be, and we believe that the fiveyear outlook for each is well above average under almost any scenario. So, we include these two in the list of the under-appreciated.”

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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 156 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 155 funds in the previous quarter. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) delivered a -5.62% return in the past 3 months.

In December 2021, 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.