Here’s Why L1 Capital International Invested in Alphabet (GOOG)

L1 Capital International, an investment management company, released its second quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund returned -10.1% net of fees in the second quarter compared to the benchmark return of -8.5%. Current macroeconomic issues and geopolitical situations affected the fund’s performance in the quarter. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2022.

L1 Capital International discussed stocks like Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in the second quarter investor letter. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is a multinational technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California. On September 6, 2022, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) stock closed at $107.48 per share. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) had a return of -9.02% for the past month and its shares lost 25.76% of their value in the last 52 weeks. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has a market capitalization of $1.397 trillion.

Here is what L1 Capital International specifically said about Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its Q2 2022 investor letter:

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is by far the largest online advertising business globally, dominating Search outside of China and other protected markets. Online advertising is driven by eCommerce – not just buying online, but also omnichannel (for example, searching for a product online and then buying it instore).

Retail sales have consistently shifted online. Historically, eCommerce has increased its penetration of adjusted total U.S. retail sales by around 1% per annum. However, due to COVID-19 and associated lockdowns, eCommerce penetration stepped up by 5% in 2020 and now accounts for over 20% of adjusted retail sales (excluding food services, automotive and gas stations), up from 6% in 2010 (see Figure 6).

Alphabet has been a major beneficiary of COVID-19, with its advertising revenue increasing 43% to nearly US$210 billion in 2021. Naturally this level of growth is unsustainable particularly in a worsening macroeconomic environment and some retail activity is shifting back offline as people are less restricted by COVID-19. However, the established trend of increasing eCommerce penetration will not reverse, and we expect Alphabet’s advertising revenue to continue to increase, albeit after a period of muted growth in 2022 and 2023. There are also bright spots for Alphabet such as travel advertising, which is recovering strongly post COVID-19…” (Click here to read the full text)

Photo by Kai Wenzel on Unsplash

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is in 5th position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 153 hedge fund portfolios held Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) at the end of the second quarter which was 160 in the previous quarter.

We discussed Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in another article and shared the top stock picks of Morris Mark’s Asset Management company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2022 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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