Billionaire Ray Dalio’s Top Stock Picks Include Microsoft, Intel

Troubled PBM Company

Dalio and his team have also bought Express Scripts Holding Company (NASDAQ:ESRX) shares left and right during the quarter, as Bridgewater’S stake in the company surged by 324% to 394,218 shares. The position was reportedly worth $27.1 million at the end of March. Express Scripts is currently facing allegations of providing investors with misleading information and financial data. The company has allegedly overstated the health of its business relationship with Anthem, Inc. (NYSE:ANTM), which accounts for 14% of its annual revenues. In January 2016 Anthem threatened to terminate the contract with Express Scripts, claiming it had not received competitive benchmark pricing from Express Scripts, which refused to renegotiate the contract in good faith. As worries of a breakup between the companies started to rise, the stock plummeted by as much as 24% by mid-February. Although shares regained some of the lost ground, they are still down by roughly 16% for the year. John Shapiro‘s Chieftain Capital is betting big on Express Scripts Holding Company (NASDAQ:ESRX), which accounts for more than 15% of its equity portfolio. Valued at $288 million, Chieftain’s position amounts to 4.2 million share as reported in its latest 13F filing.

Bridgewater’s stake in VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW) was also slightly increased, with the fund now holding 548,037 shares worth in excess of $28.6 million at the end of the first quarter. VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW) is a publicly traded subsidiary of EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), which owns 81% of the company. EMC’s merger deal with Dell has put pressure on the stock price of VMware at first, but it managed to stage a rally fueled by news of stock buyback and good first quarter results. Revenues came in at $1.59 billion, up by 5% year over year, while earnings stood at $0.86 per share, topping analysts’ estimates of $0.84 per share and $1.58 billion in revenues. The company also said it would buy back up to $1.2 billion worth of shares by the end of the year. John Overdeck and David Siegel, the managers of Two Sigma Advisors, are also bullish on this stock, having upped their bet by 42% during the same period of time. The fund now holds 1.8 million shares worth more than $94.3 million.