Baron Funds: “We Retain Conviction in Alphabet (GOOG)’s Merits”

Baron Funds, an asset management firm, published its “Baron Durable Advantage Fund” second quarter 2022 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. Baron Durable Advantage Fund (the “Fund”) declined 15.7% (Institutional Shares) during the second quarter, roughly in line with the 16.1% decline for the S&P 500 Index (the “Index”), the Fund’s benchmark. Year-to-date, the Fund has declined by 24.4% compared to the 20.0% decline for the Index. Go over the fund’s top 5 positions to have a glimpse of its finest picks for 2022.

In its Q2 2022 investor letter, Baron Durable Advantage Fund mentioned Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and explained its insights for the company. Founded in 2015, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is a Mountain View, California-based multinational conglomerate company with a $1.4 trillion market capitalization. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) delivered a -24.37% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -24.49%. The stock closed at $109.42 per share on September 08, 2022.

Here is what Baron Durable Advantage Fund has to say about Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its Q2 2022 investor letter:

“Alphabet Inc. is the parent company of Google, the world’s largest search and online advertising company. Shares of Alphabet declined 21.6% in the quarter due to concerns about slower global growth impacting the company’s core advertising business. We retain conviction in Alphabet’s merits as it continues to benefit from growth in mobile and online video advertising, which accrues to its core assets of search, YouTube, and the Google ad network. We are further encouraged by Alphabet’s investments in Cloud, AI, and Autonomous Driving (through its Waymo subsidiary).”

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Our calculations show that Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) ranks 6th on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was in 153 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2022, compared to 160 funds in the previous quarter. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) delivered a -4.78% return in the past 3 months.

In August 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in another article. You can find other investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2022 Q2 page.

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