3 Billionaire Interviews Every Investor Needs to See

Billionaire interviews: In today’s financial blogosphere, it’s not uncommon to hear prominent investors sounding off on the economy, their favorite stock picks, or why they hate Apple. Recently, three billionaires were voicing their opinions: Leon Cooperman, David Tepper and Julian Robertson.

Tepper

We’ll talk about Tepper first. The manager of Appaloosa Management has been killing it in 2013 so far, and his words have moved markets before (see the definition of the term “Tepper rally”). When he sat down with CNBC, here were his main points:

1) The Fed actually “won’t taper for a long time now…they really have no choice.” Tepper thinks it’s too early to tell if this move is fortunate or unfortunate for the U.S. economy.

2) “As far as the debt is concerned…they should just pass something in Congress that says debt should be paid always.” Tepper thinks that this “will make things much, much, much more stable.”

3) When asked how he’s finding stocks in our current market environment, Tepper was talking index-level valuation: “Historically when you have a 4-5% interest rate, you have 20 multiples on stocks…both sides [of the P/E multiple] are going to be a little bit different…I do think you can get an 18 to 20 times multiple at some point.”

Cooperman

Leon Cooperman, meanwhile, was also on the network talking specific names. He mentioned mentioned the following stocks as his top value investments: Sprint Corporation (NYSE:S), American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG), KKR Financial Holdings LLC (NYSE:KFN), QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) and SandRidge Energy Inc. (NYSE:SD). The basis of Cooperman’s picks is that they have “more growth at a lower valuation.”

Robertson

Tiger Management founder Julian Robertson, and father of the “Tiger cub” family, spoke with One Wire on how to find good hedge fund managers. The full video can be see here, and below are a few of his thoughts:

“I think everybody should be required to grow up in a small town…I think they [kids] should offer a couple of years of service to the country [Peace Corps, Navy, etc]”

“Well, the most important things with hedge fund managers are that they’re smart and that they are honest. Close behind that is probably competitiveness…someone who won’t lose doesn’t lose.”

“I’ve loved all the people I’ve been associated with [Tiger cubs], they’re terrific. I’m very proud of these people, they would have done well no matter what.”

Check out what he thinks about Steve Jobs here. Robertson’s comments on the Apple founder are surprisingly negative.

Recommended Reading:

The 40 Biggest Hedge Fund Billionaires

2013 Hedge Fund Returns

Now We Know Why Julian Robertson Sold Apple Earlier This Year