Leon Cooperman is the man behind Omega Advisors and ranks a tidy 155th on the list of wealthiest billionaires in the United States. According to Forbes, Leon Cooperman has a real-time net worth of $3.8 billion and has signed the giving pledge, contributing a majority of his wealth towards charity. His firm Omega Advisors makes its investment choices using a top-down approach for choosing industries and coupling it with fundamental analysis. According to its recent 13F filing with the SEC, Omega Advisors reported a public equity portfolio holding $6.27 billion in equities, while the firm has assets under management of $8.9 billion. Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI), Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN), and MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) are the top mid-cap equity investments of Leon Cooperman, who pours far less of his investment money into large-cap stocks than many of his wealthy peers. In this article, we will analyze the overall hedge fund sentiment surrounding these stocks and dig a little deeper into their management.
Why are we interested in the 13F filings of a select group of hedge funds? We use these filings to determine the top 15 small-cap stocks held by these elite funds based on 16 years of research that showed their top small-cap picks are much more profitable than both their large-cap stocks and the broader market as a whole. These small-cap stocks beat the S&P 500 Total Return Index by an average of nearly one percentage point per month in our backtests, which were conducted over the period of 1999 to 2012. Moreover, since the beginning of forward testing from August 2012, the strategy worked just as our research predicted, outperforming the market every year and returning 118% over the last 35 months, which is more than 60 percentage points higher than the returns of the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) (see more details).
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Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI) holds down the number ten position in the equity portfolio of Omega Advisors, which trimmed its stake in the company by 2% to 2.65 million shares valued at $151.69 million. The communication infrastructure company is endeavoring to grow its presence in the software and service business, with recent reports suggesting that the firm is in talks to buy Airwave Solutions Ltd. As per the reports, Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI) might pay up to $1.57 billion for the communications service provider. The communication device manufacturer recently reported a strategic partnership with Silver Lake, under which the investment firm will invest $1 billion in Motorola. The shares of Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI) rallied by 8.52% after the announcement on August 5. The device manufacturer reported GAAP earnings per share of $0.72 for the second quarter, improving its EPS by 140% year-over-year. Its net sales were down by 2% to $1.37 billion for the second quarter, with a GAAP operating margin of 18.6%. Smart money was bearish about Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI) during the second quarter, with the number of hedge funds holding positions in the company declining by eight to 30 during the period. The hedge funds that we track at Insider Monkey had $1.93 billion in holdings of the company against previous quarter holdings of $3.66 billion. The shares of Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI) declined by 14% during the second quarter, which contributed to the decline, but not to the extent witnesses. Jeffrey Ubben of ValueAct Capital is the largest shareholder of Motorola Solutions in our database, holding a position worth $1.01 billion from ownership of 17.59 million shares of the company.
Omega Advisors reduced its position in Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN) by 25%, with ownership of 1.15 million shares valued at $93.82 million at the end of the second quarter. The specialty chemicals company boasts a market cap of $11.43 billion and its shares are down by 1.93% year-to-date. Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN) reported mixed second quarter results on July 27, announcing earnings per share of $2.01 against market estimates of $1.83. However, while its quarterly revenue grew by 3% year-over-year to $2.53 billion, it still fell short of analysts’ expectations of $2.65 billion. Smart money was bullish on the stock of Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:EMN), with 39 hedge funds in our database maintaining positions worth $1.37 billion in the company against prior quarter aggregate holdings of $1.17 billion. Iridian Asset Management, led by David Cohen and Harold Levy, topped the list of hedge funds that we track which were invested in the company. The hedge fund had ownership of 4.84 million shares with a market value of $395.81 million at the end of the second quarter.
MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) is a new addition to Leon Cooperman’s equity portfolio. The investment firm possessed 3.44 million shares of the casino company, with a market value of $62.83 million. The shares of MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) are up by 2.89% year-to-date, courtesy of stronger second quarter 2015 financial results. The resort and gaming company reported revenues of $2.4 billion for the period, with diluted earnings per share of $0.17. Wall Street was expecting earnings per share of $0.11 over revenues of $2.4 billion. Its quarterly revenue did fall by 7.6% year-over-year however, primarily because of a slowdown in the Chinese economy, with the revenue of MGM China declining by 33% year-over-year. According to a recent report, China’s casino hub, Macau, reported a 34.5% decline in its July revenue in comparison with the prior year period, affecting the stocks of the majority of casinos with operations there. Smart money was slightly bearish on the stock during the second quarter, with 57 hedge funds having positions worth $1.54 billion in the company at the end of the second quarter. The aggregate investments were down by 12.5% in comparison with the previous quarter. The shares of MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) declined by 13.22% during the second quarter, contributing towards the lower net holdings. Daniel S. Och’s OZ Management held the largest stake in MGM Resorts in our database, holding 11.23 million shares valued at $204.88 million.
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