Leon Cooperman Sees Stocks Rising Modestly by End of Year
Cooperman Sees Stocks Gradually Rising on Solid Economic Data
(Bloomberg) -- Hedge fund billionaire Leon Cooperman, who’s battling an insider-trading lawsuit, expects a gradual increase in stocks even after a market rally following the U.S. presidential election in November.
“I think the market is not over valued, it’s reasonably fully valued,” Cooperman, founder of Omega Advisors, told CNBC Wednesday. “There are plenty of risks out there. Corporate debt levels and political uncertainty. Are we going to get a tax package through Congress?”
The manager, who said his firm is up more than 6 percent this year, likes Alphabet Inc., one of his biggest positions. He said the tech giant trades at a lower multiple than the market. He also sees an upside with Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp., adding that he made a mistake selling Apple Inc.
The renowned old-school stock picker has suffered billions of dollars in redemptions since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused him last year of reaping more than $4 million in illegal profits after conversations with an executive at Atlas Pipeline Partners GP. A U.S. District judge last month rejected Cooperman’s request to throw out the case, pushing it closer to trial.
Cooperman, 73, said the SEC overreacted and that he is anxious to go to court.
He founded Omega Advisors in 1991 after a 25-year career at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. His firm, one of the oldest in the industry, had about $3.6 billion under management as of March 31 compared with $6.7 billion at the end of 2015. He said in January that about 60 percent of the remaining assets are held by firm employees and about 40 percent is client money.
The manager said today that investors are retreating from his industry because firms, which hedge their bets, haven’t been able to keep up with the bull market that began in 2009.
“We need a bear market to bring hedge funds back into popularity,” he said.
Cooperman forecast that the market will be modestly higher by year’s end. The S&P 500 Index has risen about 11 percent since the election of President Donald Trump.
To contact the reporters on this story: Vincent Bielski in New York at vbielski@bloomberg.net, Simone Foxman in New York at sfoxman4@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Alan Mirabella
