Billionaire Leon Cooperman Shakes Things Up: Apple Inc. (AAPL), Walgreen Company (WAG), SandRidge Energy Inc. (SD)

A couple big increases for Cooperman includes NYSE Euronext (NYSE:NYX) and Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S). After one of Cooperman’s largest increases, a 200% increase in shares owned, NYSE Euronext is now the hedge fund’s 17th largest holding. NYSE Euronext is in talks with IntercontinentalExchange about being acquired. This would be a positive for both companies; the two companies together would be a leader in the market exchange industry, with a stronghold in the commodities and derivatives market. This deal will also give NYSE Euronext a presence in Europe without the expenditures.

ICE has given NYSE Euronext three options for its proposed acquisition  Of the three deal options for NYSE Euronext, one all cash, one all stock and the other a cash-stock mix, the most advantageous deal suggest upside of 8.5% still remains for the stock. Currently, the best deal includes 0.2581 shares of ICE stock per NYSE Euronext shares (see why billionaire Warren Buffett once wanted NYSE Euronext).

Sprint is now Cooperman’s top stock owned after increasing his stake 30% from the fourth quarter. I think the recent $20 billion investment from Japanese mobile phone company Softbank will be a long-term positive for the company, giving them much needed access to capital to make spectrum acquisitions. Part of this includes the purchase of the remaining Clearwire shares that it doesn’t already own. Another notable deal for Sprint has been its agreement to buy U.S. Cellular’s Chicago, central Illinois and Midwest markets, giving Sprint 585,000 customers and spectrum assets. Fellow billionaire John Paulson is also a big fan of Sprint, adding the stock to his portfolio last quarter (see all of Paulson’s shakeups).

Price to Sales
Sprint  0.5 times slaes
AT&T 1.6 times sales
Verizon 1.2 times sales

Billionaire Leon Cooperman made a couple major sells last quarter, dumping all of his Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG) shares, and for good reason. He has also made an interesting bet in the oil and gas industry; backing hedge funds TPG-Axon and Fairfax Financial in an effort to shakeup management at SandRidge Energy Inc. (NYSE:SD). As far as big increases, it appears that Cooperman thinks the Softbank investment in Sprint will payoff and that NYSE Euronext could be a merger-arb play.