John Griffin, 47, was second in command at Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management. He launched Blue Ridge Capital in 1996. John Griffin was one of the top hedge fund managers in 2007, returning 65% and pocketing $625 Million. He also made $175 Million in 2005. Blue Ridge Capital lost only around 8% in 2008. John Griffin was probably hurt by his short positions in 2009, returning only 7.7%. His three year average return was 17.83% at the end of 2009.
His investment style is similar to other Tiger cubs who are long/short equity investors with a long bias. We don’t know John Griffin’s returns in 2010, but 43 stocks that are in his 13F portfolio at the end of 2009 returned 14.6%, underperforming S&P 500’s 15.1% 2010 return. Considering he isn’t usually 100% long, Blue Ridge probably had a mediocre year.
During the fourth quarter John Griffin added 9 stocks to his portfolio. Here is how they performed:
| Company | Ticker | Return | Value (Million) |
| CABLEVISION SYS CORP | CVC | 11.2% | 111 |
| GENERAL GROWTH PPTYS INC | GGP | 1.8% | 92 |
| NRG ENERGY INC | NRG | 6.9% | 69 |
| GENERAL MTRS CO | GM | -0.9% | 55 |
| NOVAGOLD RES INC | NG | 0.9% | 55 |
| SOHU COM INC | SOHU | 32.1% | 49 |
| HOWARD HUGHES CORP | HHC | 2.6% | 32 |
| NORTHEAST BANCORP | NBN | -1.7% | 2 |
| TAL ED GROUP | XRS | -26.1% | 2 |
John Griffin’s new stock picks returned 7.4% since the end of 2010, beating the SPY by 0.4 percentage points. His biggest new stock pick, Cablevision (CVC), is also one of the stocks fellow Tiger cub Chase Coleman has in his portfolio. It’s very common to have several Tiger cubs carrying the same positions. John Griffin was also investing in General Growth Properties, along with Bill Ackman, Bruce Berkowitz, and Whitney Tilson. Blue Ridge added $55 Million of Novagold Resources (NG) shares to its portfolio and to balance this out, cut down their GDX investment by about $30 Million. This can be viewed as a pairs trade. George Soros and John Paulson also like Novagold. John Griffin bought General Motors, joining William Ackman’s Pershing Square, George Soros, David Tepper’s Appaloosa, Roberto Mignone’s Bridger Management, Richard Perry’s Perry Capital, and Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors.
John Griffin also added to some of his positions which performed unbelievably. Netflix (NFLX), Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX), and Ivanhoe Energy (IVAN) returned at least 28% each since the end of 2010. It seems John Griffin is getting his groove back in 2011. Here are his top 40 stock holdings:
| Company | Ticker | Return | Value (Million) |
| AMAZON COM INC | AMZN | 3.6% | 382 |
| APPLE INC | AAPL | 8.7% | 364 |
| JPMORGAN CHASE & CO | JPM | 13.3% | 361 |
| MARKET VECTORS ETF TR | GDX | -4.1% | 307 |
| EXPRESS SCRIPTS INC | ESRX | 5.0% | 274 |
| VALEANT PHARMACEUTICALS INTL | VRX | 43.1% | 246 |
| BP PLC | BP | 9.5% | 222 |
| CITRIX SYS INC | CTXS | 6.2% | 210 |
| CROWN CASTLE INTL CORP | CCI | -0.1% | 210 |
| DOLLAR TREE INC | DLTR | -6.0% | 209 |
| WESTERN UN CO | WU | 16.6% | 187 |
| THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC INC | TMO | 4.2% | 186 |
| CIT GROUP INC | CIT | -8.1% | 181 |
| TEVA PHARMACEUTICAL INDS LTD | TEVA | 0.0% | 179 |
| RANGE RES CORP | RRC | 7.4% | 175 |
| CME GROUP INC | CME | -5.9% | 163 |
| DISCOVERY COMMUNICATNS NEW | DISCA | 5.3% | 161 |
| BLACKROCK INC | BLK | 8.4% | 152 |
| MICROSOFT CORP | MSFT | -2.5% | 149 |
| COVANTA HLDG CORP | CVA | -0.9% | 149 |
| BANCO SANTANDER BRASIL SA | BSBR | -7.9% | 145 |
| CREDICORP LTD | BAP | -14.9% | 144 |
| TD AMERITRADE HLDG CORP | AMTD | 14.9% | 131 |
| GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC | GS | -0.1% | 131 |
| NETFLIX INC | NFLX | 34.0% | 125 |
| DISCOVERY COMMUNICATNS NEW | DISCK | 6.4% | 116 |
| CABLEVISION SYS CORP | CVC | 11.2% | 111 |
| MGIC INVT CORP WIS | MTG | -8.4% | 101 |
| LIBERTY GLOBAL INC | LBTYA | 19.2% | 98 |
| GENERAL GROWTH PPTYS INC NEW | GGP | 1.8% | 92 |
| ARES CAP CORP | ARCC | 6.9% | 88 |
| LIBERTY MEDIA CORP NEW | LSTZA | 8.2% | 84 |
| NVR INC | NVR | 9.2% | 72 |
| NRG ENERGY INC | NRG | 6.9% | 69 |
| ECHOSTAR CORP | SATS | 33.8% | 66 |
| IVANHOE MINES LTD | IVN | 20.8% | 61 |
| GENERAL MTRS CO | GM | -0.9% | 55 |
| NOVAGOLD RES INC | NG | 0.9% | 55 |
| STARWOOD HOTELS&RESORTS WRLD | HOT | 7.1% | 49 |
| SOHU COM INC | SOHU | 32.1% | 49 |
These 40 stocks account for 96% of Blue Ridge Capital’s portfolio. Their weighted average return since the end of December is 6.4%, underperforming SPY’s 7% return. It seems John Griffin’s long term holdings that are unchanged or reduced caused his returns to lag the market. He has such a diverse portfolio that it isn’t surprising that his return isn’t much different from the market’s. His best performing stock was VRX, which is also in Andreas Halvorsen’s portfolio. He doesn’t have any Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo shares, but he has JP Morgan (JPM) and Blackrock (BLK) in his portfolio. Bill Miller, Lee Ainslie, Joseph DiMenna, and Stephen Mandel have JP Morgan in their portfolios. Lee Ainslie’s Maverick, John Burbank’s Passport Capital, and Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global are other high profile Blackrock investors.
