In this article, we discuss the 5 best Vanguard stocks to buy now. If you want to read our detailed analysis of these stocks, go directly to the 10 Best Vanguard Stocks to Buy Now.
5. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)
Vanguard’s Stake Value: $46,994,694,000
Percentage of Vanguard Group’s 13F Portfolio: 1.29%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 159
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) ranks 5th on the 10 best Vanguard stocks to buy now. The California-based tech behemoth provides online advertising services. Alphabet Inc. operates in various segments like Google Cloud, Google Play, Google Maps, and Youtube, to name a few. At the end of the first quarter, Vanguard Group Inc owned 22,785,085 shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) worth $46.9 billion, representing 1.29% of Vanguard’s investment portfolio. The stock has gained 15% over the last three months.
GOOGL stock earnings have increased as a result of the ongoing stock repurchase program. On April 23, Alphabet’s Board of Directors approved the business to buy back up to $50.0 billion of its Class C capital stock, which will be done on a case-by-case basis. Meanwhile, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), announced a $7 billion investment in office and data center development across 19 states in the United States in March. The project is slated to be completed this year, and Google estimates the expansion to generate at least 10,000 full-time jobs.
The company has a market cap of $1.72 trillion. The company’s first-quarter revenue grew 34% to $55.3 billion, up from $41.2 billion in the same quarter in 2020. The company’s earnings came in at $26.29 per share compared to a $15.82 per share forecasted by Wall Street analysts. April 28, Piper Sandler maintained an Overweight rating on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), with a price target of $2,635 per share.
At the end of the first quarter of 2021, 159 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $29 billion in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), up from 157 the preceding quarter worth $20.5 billion.
In its Q1 2021 Investor Letter, Artisan Partners mentioned Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and shared their insights on the company. Here is what the fund said:
“Large-cap tech companies have been resilient through the pandemic—Alphabet among them. A top contributor, Alphabet’s Play Store, and Google Cloud are in demand as businesses accelerate online activity which, along with strong YouTube user growth, is helping stabilize temporarily weaker search ad revenue trends. Through the lens of our disciplined bottom-up research process, 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 for which we continue to have high hopes regarding future prospects.”
