#4 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
– Shares Owned by Blue Ridge (as of December 31): 358,000
– Value of Blue Ridge’s Holding (as of December 31): $278.53 Million
Mr. Griffin owns 358,000 class A shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) as of the end of the December quarter, a sizable increase from the stake of 250,000 class A shares owned at the end of September. It is known that Alphabet’s financial success in recent years is mainly attributable to its core business, which focuses on online advertising. However, as the company’s founders have reiterated on numerous occasions, “Google is not a conventional company”. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s “Other Bets” could eventually represent a flourishing source of growth in the years ahead. The company’s Other Bets segment includes businesses such as Access/Google Fiber, Calico, Nest, Verily, and GV, to name just a few. The internet giant has been very successful in capitalizing on the secular shift of advertising dollars from traditional media to search and YouTube, while its ambitious projects are generating fast-ballooning revenue. Tiger Cub Andreas Halvorsen of Viking Global owns 1.85 million class A shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) as of December 31.
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#3 Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB)
– Shares Owned by Blue Ridge (as of December 31): 3.16 Million
– Value of Blue Ridge’s Holding (as of December 31): $330.73 Million
The New York-based hedge fund kept its Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) stake unchanged during the last three months of 2015, with the position representing the fifth-largest equity holding in the fund’s portfolio. The shares of Facebook have advanced by 32% over the past 12 months and by more than 229% over the past five years, thanks to its phenomenal user growth and successful monetization efforts. Nonetheless, some investors may worry about future user and revenue growth, as those figures are expected to slow in the future. The company’s 2015 advertising revenue increased by 49% year-over-year to $17.07 billion, after growing by 65% during the previous year. Indeed, the company cannot maintain extremely high user growth rates indefinitely, as its platforms are continuously achieving greater market penetration. Just recently, Facebook officials revealed that all publishers could host their articles on Facebook’s “Instant Articles” program, which could benefit both the publishers struggling to monetize content on mobile and Facebook itself, by keeping users glued to its app. Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management reported an ownership stake of 6.61 million shares of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) through the latest round of 13F filings.
