Billionaire Leon G. Cooperman, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of multi-billion-dollar hedge fund Omega Advisors, has been an exceptional stock picker for decades. Earlier this year, the billionaire hedge fund manager and his hedge fund received a Wells notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission notifying that the agency plans to pursue an enforcement action over trading violations. Mr. Cooperman, widely known for his appearances at public investment conferences and interviews, said the SEC investigation relates to trading securities of Atlas Pipeline Partners LP that happened in July 2010, but he asserted that his $5.2 billion New York-based firm “can definitely prove we’ve done nothing wrong”. “We care about our reputation, and I am not going to let these guys change my legacy”, said the billionaire during a 15-minute investor call. Leaving this discussion aside, value-oriented retail investors need to have a look at Omega Advisors’ portfolio of holdings considering the fund’s strong performance since inception in 1991. That being said, the following article will discuss Mr. Cooperman’s three top equity positions as of the end of March, as well as two positions whose size was more than doubled during the first quarter of 2016.
At Insider Monkey, we track around 730 hedge funds and institutional investors. Through extensive backtests, we have determined that imitating some of the stocks that these investors are collectively bullish on can help retail investors generate double digits of alpha per year. The key is to focus on the small-cap picks of these funds, which are usually less followed by the broader market and allow for larger price inefficiencies (see more details about our small-cap strategy).
Targa Resources Corp (NYSE:TRGP)
– Number of shares owned by Omega Advisors as of March 31: 2.72 Million
– Value of Omega Advisors’ holding as of March 31: $81.11 Million
Omega Advisors upped its stake in Targa Resources Corp (NYSE:TRGP) by 1.46 million shares during the first three months of 2016, ending the first quarter of the year with 2.72 million shares. The increased position was worth $81.11 million at the end of March and accounted for 2.2% of the fund’s public portfolio. The provider of midstream services has seen its shares advance an impressive 62% since the beginning of 2016. The company’s revenues for the first quarter of 2016 were $1.44 billion, down from $1.68 billion reported a year ago. The decrease was mainly driven by lower commodity prices, partly offset by the inclusion of two additional months of operations of the aforementioned Atlas Pipeline Partners LP acquired in early 2015. There were 27 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey with stakes in Targa Resources at the end of March, as compared to only 18 recorded at the end of December. Dan Loeb’s Third Point LLC acquired a new stake of 1.80 million shares of Targa Resources Corp (NYSE:TRGP) during the March quarter.
