Amid Severe Decline In AUM, Billionaire Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors Shuffles Portfolio Heading Into 2017

Navient Corp (NASDAQ:NAVI)

– Shares Held by Omega Advisors (as of December 31): 3.75 Million

– Value of Holding (as of December 31): $61.68 Million

Omega Advisors brought its holding in Navient Corp (NASDAQ:NAVI) down by two-thirds during the fourth quarter. Immediately after the fund initiated its stake in the loan management and recovery company in the fourth quarter of 2014, Navient Corp (NASDAQ:NAVI)’s stock entered a bear phase and lost over 40% of its value in 2015. However, the stock made a recovery in 2016, rising by over 60%, and offered a chance for trapped bulls to get out of their positions. For its most recent quarter, Navient Corp declared EPS of $0.43 on net interest income of $378 million versus analysts’ EPS and net interest income expectations of $0.44 and $365 million, respectively. The company’s popularity among the investors in our database dropped marginally during the fourth quarter, as the number of funds long the stock inched down by one to 29 and the aggregate value of their holdings fell by $77.6 million to $289.22 million.

Time Inc (NYSE:TIME)

– Shares Held by Omega Advisors (as of December 31): 3.89 Million

– Value of Holding (as of December 31): $69.5 Million

Time Inc (NYSE:TIME) was among the few stocks in which Omega Advisors increased its stake substantially during the fourth quarter, upping it by 330%. Several other hedge funds that we follow also upped their stake in the company during the period, amid news that Time Inc (NYSE:TIME)’s Board had declined an offer from Edgar Bronfman to buy the company for $18 per share. However, the number of investors in our system that were long TIME remained the same at 21 by the end of the fourth quarter, despite the aggregate value of their holdings in it shooting up by 74.4% to $256.5 million. On February 7, the Wall Street Journal reported that a group led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. along with Meredith Corp. (NYSE:MDP) has signed a non disclosure agreement with Time, suggesting that the entities are in advanced stages of merger-related talks. Last month, Time agreed to acquire automated ad-buying platform Adelphic for an undisclosed sum of money.

On the final page, we’ll look at the two other major moves executed by Omega Advisors in Q4.