Billionaire Leon Cooperman’s Top Picks and Two Positions He Doubled

First Data Corp (NYSE:FDC)

– Number of shares owned by Omega Advisors as of March 31: 15.53 Million

– Value of Omega Advisors’ holding as of March 31: $199.98 Million

Omega Advisors increased exposure to First Data Corp (NYSE:FDC) by 114,800 shares during the first three months of 2016, ending the first quarter with 15.53 million shares valued at $199.98 million. The payment processor has seen its shares decline by 28% since the company conducted its initial public offering in mid-October 2015. A fresh report posted by financial publication Barron’s says that First Data’s shares “are too cheap to ignore”, after the company has strengthened its balance sheet, improved its technology and agreed with creditors to postpone $5 billion in debt payments to 2021 from 2018. First Data Corp is among the largest card processors in the world and its shares are currently changing hands at around 7.5-times expected earnings, significantly below the double-digit forward PE multiples boasted by most of its competitors. The forward PE ratio for the S&P 500 Index stands at 16.6. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management LLC had 558,920 shares of First Data Corp (NYSE:FDC) in its equity portfolio at the end of March.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

– Number of shares owned by Omega Advisors as of March 31: 276,599

– Value of Omega Advisors’ holding as of March 31: $211.02 Million

Leon Cooperman’s investment firm owns 276,599 Class A shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) as of the end of the first quarter, 151,020 shares less than at the end of the December quarter. The reshuffled stake, worth $211.02 million on March 31, represented 5.6% of Omega Advisors’ entire portfolio and was the largest position in terms of value. Alphabet’s Google may start selling its modular phones called Ara next year, two years later than initially anticipated. Just recently, the search giant showed how different replaceable parts on the Ara smartphone could be easily ejected and replaced to include various types of cameras or displays, sensors, battery and other smartphone components. The Ara project may be disruptive to the current smartphone market, as smartphones’ hardware could be as customizable as apps. Class A shares of Alphabet have lost 7% of their value since the beginning of 2016. Alphabet was the most popular stock among the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey at the end of March, with 155 smart money investors having positions in the company. Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global owns 2.05 million Class A shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) as of the end of March.

Disclosure: None