In an interview with Forbes, billionaire Leon Cooperman shared some of his wisdom about investing as well as his stock picks for 2023. Cooperman, who built up Goldman Sachs’ asset management division as CEO of the firm and then went on to launch his own hedge fund Omega Advisors in 1991, has an estimated worth of $2.5 billion, most of which he has pledged to give away.
Calling himself “a disciple of Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham and David Dodd,” Cooperman says that he has always leaned toward value investing, and getting more out than what he puts in. He considers tech to be “a double-edged sword,” where investors pay high multiples for something that could have a very short life, particularly as product cycles become shorter and competition gets more fierce. It’s “not a game I feel comfortable playing,” he told Forbes. When asked about his biggest investing success, Cooperman pointed to his investment in Teledyne, which he first bought a stake in in 1968 and held onto for 25 years. As for younger investors, Cooperman advises thinking long term, being aware of what’s in your portfolio, and being “tax efficient,” adding that “the only way to be successful is to do what you love and love what you do.”
As for stock picks that he recommends, Cooperman highlighted a company called Ligado Networks which owns about 40 megahertz of 5G spectrum—a highly valuable commodity that the Department of Defense has expressed interest in. If Cooperman’s wager on the company pans out when it matures in November, he stands to rake in a high return with a 15.5% PIK bond trading at 30 cents on the dollar. He also has a large stake in the energy industry and told Forbes that he believes oil stocks are undervalued, with his favorite companies being Paramount Resources and Tourmaline Oil, both Canada-based.
However, Cooperman also thinks the U.S. has “a lot of problems” that are “reflected in the market.” He’s concerned about debt buildup, with too much easy money and not enough discipline pouring into the economy over the last several years. “The only bullish thing I can think of personally is that most people are pessimistic and we’ve been in a bear market, so there are a lot of cheap stocks around,” he told Forbes.
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