Oakmark Funds: “Alphabet (GOOG)’s Total Advertising Business is Still Positioned to Grow”

Oakmark Funds, an investment management firm, published its “Oakmark Global Select Fund” second quarter 2022 investor letter – a copy that can be downloaded here. The Oakmark Global Select Fund returned -16.7% for the quarter ending June 30, underperforming the MSCI World Index (NET), which returned -16.2%. Year-to-date, the Fund returned -22.6% compared to the benchmark’s return of -20.5%. Since its September 2006 inception, the Fund has earned an annualized return of 6.9% per year. Go over the fund’s top 5 positions to have a glimpse of its finest picks for 2022.

In its Q2 2022 investor letter, Oakmark Global Select 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 $1.5 trillion market capitalization. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) delivered a -20.72% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -13.50%. The stock closed at $114.70 per share on July 20, 2022. 

Here is what Oakmark Global Select Fund has to say about Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its Q2 2022 investor letter:

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), a global communication services provider, was a top detractor to the Fund’s performance for the quarter. Investors were disappointed by the company’s first-quarter earnings report, though its results were largely in line with analysts’ expectations, including 23% revenue growth to $68 billion and a total operating margin of 30%. Search revenue improved 28% in constant currency, led by retail and the ongoing recovery in travel. Although YouTube’s brand advertising was strong, segment revenue decelerated due to difficult comparable sales and the adverse effects of the Russia/Ukraine war. However, share repurchases for the first quarter amounted to $13.3 billion and were tracking in line with our full-year estimate, and the company authorized an additional $70 billion for buybacks, adding to our confidence in management’s commitment to adding value for its shareholders. While an industry-wide trend of slowing advertising revenues persisted in the second quarter, we believe Alphabet’s total advertising business is still positioned to grow in the mid-teens in 2022 and that the stock remains an attractive holding.”

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Our calculations show that Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) ranks 5th on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was in 160 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2022, compared to 158 funds in the previous quarter. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) delivered a -10.56% return in the past 3 months.

In July 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.