4. Vanguard Russell 1000 Growth Index Fund ETF Shares (NASDAQ:VONG)
Vanguard Russell 1000 Growth Index Fund ETF Shares (NASDAQ:VONG) is an exchange traded fund that tracks the Russell 1000 Growth Index, a widely diversified market index consisting primarily of growth stocks of large U.S. companies. The ETF’s 1-year annual returns came in at 27.50% as of December 31, whereas the benchmark returns were 27.60%.
Vanguard Russell 1000 Growth Index Fund ETF Shares (NASDAQ:VONG)’s portfolio is dominated by technology, industrials, healthcare, and consumer discretionary stocks. With total assets of $11 billion and the top ten holdings comprising 50.3% of the total investments, Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is a prominent underlying security of the exchange traded fund.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) traded higher on March 10 after the announcement by the company of a 20-for-1 stock split and a $10 billion buyback authorization. There is also some discussion that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) split could set it up for inclusion in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is perhaps the most popular growth stock in the hedge fund universe. According to the Q4 database of Insider Monkey, 279 hedge funds were bullish on Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), up from 242 funds in the prior quarter. Eagle Capital Management held a significant stake in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in the fourth quarter, with 677,828 shares worth $2.26 billion.
Here is what Polen Focus Growth has to say about Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in its Q4 2021 investor letter:
“Amazon has lagged over the past year and a half. The company now must surpass the substantial revenue windfall it achieved in 2020 while also managing supply chain disruptions, wage inflation, and investments to further distance itself from its competition and serve heightened demand. We feel these headwinds are short-term and transitory. Amazon’s first-party ecommerce business is a low (actually negative) margin business, and these short-term investments and inefficiencies are pushing it further into the red. However, the now large, faster-growing, higher-margin businesses like Amazon Prime, AWS, and advertising should allow margins to move much higher over time.
Our view of long-term growth and margin expansion potential for Amazon remains unchanged, and the valuation has only become more attractive. According to our research, if our expectations for free cash flow growth over the next five years materialize, then Amazon has the potential to deliver among the highest returns across our Focus Growth portfolio. It is now our second-largest position, just behind Alphabet.”
