Leon Cooperman was the CEO and Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. He worked at Goldman Sachs for 25 years. In 1991, he left Goldman and started Omega Advisors. He has been extremely bullish about US equities for a while now. He thinks interest rates are going to go up, so he urges investors to consider stocks instead of bonds. So far he has been right.
At the end of 2010 his largest positions were Atlas Energy (ATLS), SLM Corp (SLM), and KKR Financial (KFN). He had more than $4 Billion in stocks in his 13F portfolio at the end of December. This week he filed another 13F form, disclosing his holdings as of March 31st. Here are his favorite stock picks.
Company | Ticker | Return (YTD) | Return (since March 31st) | Value (Millions) | |
SLM CORP | 33.1% | 9.5% | 274 | ||
ATLAS PIPELINE PARTNERS | 42.4% | 0.3% | 195 | ||
LINN ENERGY LLC | 6.9% | 1.3% | 158 | ||
KKR FINANCIAL HOLDINGS | 12.3% | 5.2% | 151 | ||
ENERGY XXI BERMUDA | 24.8% | 1.2% | 139 | ||
TEVA PHARMACEUTICAL | -9.2% | -6.0% | 113 | ||
XL GROUP PLC | 10.9% | -2.2% | 112 | ||
3M CO | 11.6% | 2.4% | 108 | ||
WELLPOINT INC | 40.9% | 14.4% | 105 | ||
E*TRADE FINANCIAL CORP | 2.5% | 4.9% | 104 | ||
GENERAL MOTORS CO | -14.2% | 1.9% | 99 | ||
UNITED CONTINENTAL | 8.2% | 12.1% | 96 | ||
DISCOVERY COMM | 8.7% | 13.3% | 95 | ||
MICROSOFT CORP | -7.5% | 1.1% | 91 | ||
SPDR GOLD TRUST | 6.6% | 5.7% | 87 | ||
BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOL | 6.0% | 1.8% | 87 | ||
WILLIAMS COS INC | 28.9% | 1.8% | 86 | ||
ATLAS ENERGY LP | 63.1% | 9.0% | 85 | ||
MGIC INVESTMENT CORP | -16.0% | -3.7% | 81 | ||
JPMORGAN CHASE & CO | 7.2% | -1.5% | 79 | ||
VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS | 7.7% | -1.3% | 78 | ||
DENBURY RESOURCES INC | 11.4% | -12.9% | 75 | ||
CABLEVISION SYSTEMS | 4.0% | 1.4% | 75 | ||
CVS CAREMARK CORP | 8.6% | 9.6% | 73 | ||
FORD MOTOR CO | -9.8% | 1.6% | 71 | ||
SUNOCO INC | 5.9% | -6.7% | 65 | ||
ALTISOURCE PORTFOLIO | 20.0% | 12.3% | 61 | ||
TIME WARNER INC | 13.7% | 1.8% | 61 | ||
TRANSOCEAN LTD | -1.7% | -12.3% | 61 | ||
LINCOLN NATIONAL CORP | 9.2% | 0.9% | 60 | ||
Leon Cooperman’s top 30 stock picks returned 13.9% since the end of 2010, vs. 8.5% return for the SPY. These stocks also gained 2.9% since the end of March, vs. 2.5% gain for the SPY. Leon Cooperman demonstrates strong stock picking skills. His top 10 holdings performed even better. An equal-weighted portfolio of his top 10 holdings would have returned 17.6% since the end of December, and 3.1% since the end of March. All of these 10 stocks were in his portfolio at the end of December as well (See Cooperman's previous top holdings here).
Cooperman’s top stock pick is also popular among hedge funds. Jonathan Jacobson’s Highfields Capital had more than $600 Million in SLM at the end of December. David Abrams, Jim Simons, and Israel Englander were among the other hedge fund managers with SLM holdings. His fourth largest position, KFN, is held by Wayne Cooperman, Bill Miller, and Chuck Royce. Wayne Cooperman is Leon’s son and has been a successful hedge fund manager for the past 17 years.
One of Cooperman’s worst performing stock pick was General Motors. He bought it during the fourth quarter of ,2010 along with several other hedge fund managers. Bill Ackman, Barry Rosenstein, Douglas Hirsch, Richard Perry, Roberto Mignone, John Griffin and David Tepper lost 14% of their investments since the end of 2010. Overall, we think investors will be able to outperform the market by imitating Cooperman’s largest holdings.
