Billionaire Leon Cooperman headed Goldman Sachs Asset Management before founding hedge fund Omega Advisors in 1991. Omega now has over $3 billion in assets under management and Cooperman is a widely followed investor. The fund recently filed its 13F for the fourth quarter of 2012, disclosing many of its long equity positions as of the end of December (effectively, Cooperman’s stock picks for 2013). We track 13F filings because imitating hedge funds, even with the lag imposed by the filing period, can help produce returns; the most popular small cap stocks among hedge funds, for example, generate an excess return of 18 percentage points per year (learn more about imitating hedge funds’ small cap stocks). Here are some themes that we noticed in Omega’s most recent 13F portfolio compared to previous filings:
Selling Apple. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) had been one of Omega’s five largest holdings at the end of the third quarter, with a position of about 270,000 shares but the fund had sold out completely by the end of December. We don’t know exactly when the fund started selling, but Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) did decline by 19% over the course of Q4 and is down another 15% year to date. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) had been the most popular stock among hedge funds at the end of September (see the full top ten list). We do still like Apple at its current valuation of 11 times trailing earnings; while we are not as optimistic as Wall Street analysts we think that the company should be able to at least keep its earnings steady as market share declines thanks to the growth of the tablet and smartphone markets. Of course, given the recent fall in the stock price- which itself came from reasonable multiples- investors may well be less confident.
Check out two stocks that Cooperman was buying in Q4:
Phones and radio. Cooperman and his team increased their holdings of both Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S) and Sirius XM Radio Inc (NASDAQ:SIRI) by at least 10%; Sprint was the fund’s largest position by market value at the beginning of 2013. While Sprint did post losses for 2012 and is expected to do the same this year Wall Street analysts do expect these losses to be smaller and Sprint is up about 160% in the last year off of market optimism. We would note that revenue growth has been low and careful analysis would be required if an investor was interested in following this move. Sirius is expected to earn 10 cents per share this year, resulting in a high current-year P/E. Revenue was up 14% last quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2012. Sirius’s stock has also been a strong performer over the last year, rising 49%.
Sprint and Sirius XM seem pricy in terms of valuation, and may be a bit too speculative for many investors though certainly Omega’s bullishness is noted. We’ve mentioned that we would consider Apple cheap at its current price though certainly Cooperman and his team were correct to sell when they did. Sandridge- also a stock we’d feel less than comfortable buying due to poor earnings- is an interesting pick; certainly we doubt that the fund has bought these shares without having some view on the governance situation. Chesapeake has rallied strongly since its CEO’s removal and Omega may believe that the market would react similarly to the same occurring at Sandridge.
Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.
