Leon Cooperman did not give us the pleasure of an imaginary short disclosure when he spoke at a Portfolios With Purpose fundraiser convened in Manhattan yesterday. We were unable to make it but Lawrence Delevingne of Absolute Return has great coverage of the event.
We are more disappointed because last week David Einhorn spoke about his hypothetical shorts in United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) and Loblaw Companies Limited (TSE:L), which his team had chosen for his PwP portfolio.
However Cooperman, CEO and manager of $7 billion Omega Advsiors, refrained from picking anyone on the short side. He jokingly said that he did not want to trash a company like Bill Ackman does. It seems like Ackman’s popularity in the older group of hedge fund titans is decidedly limited, as Cooperman sounds unimpressed by his tactics.
Sticking to the theme of not trashing anyone, Cooperman kept his presentation short. His stock picks on the long side for PwP include, Qualicorp SA, Crocs, Inc. (NASDAQ:CROX), Monitise Plc (LON:MONI) and Tetragon Financial Group Limited (AMS:TFG).
All of Cooperman’s picks are small-cap companies. Monitise Plc (LON:MONI), a technology solutions company (and favorite Cooperman long), is a favorite short of many hedge funds.
Cooperman hopes his for-charity portfolio gains through the year which will in turn earn donations to his charity of choice, Damon Runyan Cancer Foundation. During his presentation at the PwP fundraiser, Cooperman said that the stock market is well placed to benefit from the easy monetary policy and he is more bullish on this sector than any other.
David Einhorn is betting his portfolio on two long and two short positions and chose “Not In Our Town” as his charity. On the short side Einhorn picked a major Canadian retailer, Loblaw Companies Limited (TSE:L) which is intriguing.
Back in the real world, both Cooperman’s Omega Advisors and Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital have managed handsome returns in the first quarter. Greenlight Capital was up 6.1 percent at the end of March while Omega Advisors tags along with a +6.55 percent return in the same period.
Portfolios with Puropse was founded by Stacey Asher in 2011. The investing game of Portfolios with Purpose starts with choosing a set of stocks as hypothetical short or long positions and then at the end of the game, the players whose portfolios returns among the highest three will get donations from the PwP foundation into their chosen charities.
