Is Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) A Smart Long-Term Buy?

Weitz Investment Management, an investment management firm, published its “Partners Value Fund” fourth quarter 2020 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of 15.37% was recorded by the fund’s Institutional Class in the fourth quarter of 2020, outperforming both its S&P 500 benchmark that delivered a 12.15% return and Russell 3000 that had a gain of 14.68% in the same period. You can view the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a peek at their top bets for 2021.

Weitz Investment Management, in their Q4 2020 investor letter, mentioned Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and emphasized their views on the company. Alphabet Inc. is a Mountain View, California-based multinational conglomerate and the mother company of Google. It currently has a massive $1.38 trillion market capitalization. Since the beginning of the year, GOOG delivered a 17.33% return, impressively extending its 12-month gains to 85.92%. As of March 30, 2021, the stock closed at $2,055.54 per share.

Here is what Weitz Investment Management has to say about Alphabet Inc. in their Q4 2020 investor letter:

“Despite mounting regulatory scrutiny, Alphabet was the Fund’s largest contributor for the year. The stock rose materially as Google’s digital advertising businesses continued to chug along.”

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Our calculations show that Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) ranks 6th in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, Alphabet Inc. was in 157 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 150 funds in the third quarter. GOOG delivered an 8.75% return in the past 3 months.