Billionaire John Griffin’s Top 5 Large-Cap Ideas

#2 Priceline Group Inc. (NASDAQ:PCLN)

– Shares Owned by Blue Ridge (as of December 31): 263,000

– Value of Blue Ridge’s Holding (as of December 31): $336.46 Million

Blue Ridge Capital LLC did not make any changes to its position in Priceline Group Inc. (NASDAQ:PCLN) during the October-to-December period, with the holding standing as the fourth-largest equity position in the fund’s portfolio. The provider of travel and restaurant reservations and other related services has experienced exceptional growth in recent years, which could be explained by the shift in travel purchasing to online from offline and the increased demand for travelling in emerging markets. The shares of Priceline Group Inc. (NASDAQ:PCLN) are up by 1% over the past year, mainly owing to the gain of more than $100 registered on Wednesday after the company revealed better-than-expected financial results for the fourth quarter. This marks the first $100 single-session gain for a company in the S&P 500 benchmark in history. The company reported total revenue of $9.22 billion for 2015, up from the $8.44 billion reported for 2014. This growth was partly attributable to the growing number of bookable properties on the accommodation reservation service website Booking.com. Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management acquired a 758,389-share stake in Priceline Group Inc. (NASDAQ:PCLN) during the December quarter.

#1 Allergan plc (NYSE:AGN)

– Shares Owned by Blue Ridge (as of December 31): 2.00 Million

– Value of Blue Ridge’s Holding (as of December 31): $625.00 Million

Mr. Griffin’s 2 million-share stake in Allergan plc (NYSE:AGN) represented the largest equity holding of the billionaire investor at the end of 2015, accounting for 6.96% of his portfolio. Blue Ridge upped its position in Allergan by 22% during the final quarter of 2015. It is already known that Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and Botox-maker Allergan sealed a merger agreement in November 2015, which could create the largest drugmaker in the world. The combined company, to be named Pfizer plc, is expected to retain Allergan’s Irish legal domicile, but some market participants continue to believe that the U.S. Treasury might find a way to block the attempted tax inversion deal. The shares of Allergan are trading at a discount of at least 15% to the value of the proposed merger, which values their shares at $363.63. Allergan shareholders will receive 11.3 shares of the combined company for every Allergan share owned, while Pfizer shareholders will get one share of the new company for each Pfizer share owned. Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners owned 1.16 million shares of Allergan plc (NYSE:AGN) at the end of December 2015.

Disclosure: None