The 13f filing of Leon Cooperman, the founder and chairman of the hedge fund, Omega Advisors with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed that he purchased 13 new stocks and the value of his total assets under management increased during the fourth quarter of 2012.
As of December 31, Leon Cooperman’s assets under management went up from more than $4.98 billion to approximately $5.44 billion. Based on his portfolio, his largest major new stockholdings for the quarter includes SandRidge Energy Inc. (NYSE:SD) with 24, 378, 545 shares, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) with 3,161,300 shares, Harbinger Group Inc. (NYSE:HRG) with 5 million shares, VeriFone Systems Inc. (NYSE:PAY) with 1, 258, 273 shares, and Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE:FCX) with 3,161,300 shares.
Leon Cooperman’s largest position during the period is with Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S), with a 5.87 percent stake. He boosted his stake in the company by more than 13 million shares bringing his total stake in the communications carries to over 56 million shares. The total market value of his position is approximately $317.62 million.
In an interview with CNBC, Cooperman said that he boosted his stake in Sprint because he believed that the stock would be a winner this year. With regard to the allegations of TPG-Axon against SandRidge Energy Inc.’s (NYSE:SD) CEO regarding related-party land transactions, Cooperman said he is listening to both sides of the camp, but he did not reveal how he would vote. TPG-Axon is persuading its fellow shareholders to support its demand to launch an investigation against Ward.
His second largest stockholding is American International Group, Inc. (NYSE:AIG) to the tune of 5.83 percent or more than 7.79 million shares with an estimated market value of over $275 million. During the period, he reduced his stake in AIG by 264,000 shares.
Leon Cooperman’s third largest position is SLM Corp (NASDAQ:SLM) with a stake of 4.89 percent or more than 15.5 million shares with approximately $266 million market value. The fourth and fifth largest positions are Sirius XM Radio Inc (NASDAQ:SIRI) at 3.79 percent or over 71 million shares with an estimated market value of $206 million, and Kinder Morgan Inc Common Stock (NYSE:KMI) at 3.25 percent or more than 5 million shares worth approximately $176 million, respectively.
During the period, Cooperman sold out his shares in Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG), Range Resources Corp. (NYSE:RRC), Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC), and Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CTRP).
