Will the Best Leon Cooperman Picks Please Stand Up?

By guest contributor Insider Monkey author Jake Mann. It’s not uncommon to hear hedge fund managers and other prominent investors sounding off on the economy, companies they’re invested in, or even why they hate Apple. So when Leon Cooperman, the billionaire head of Omega Advisors, was on CNBC earlier this week discussing his favorite stock picks, it would appear that this was rational advice all viewers should pay attention to.

Except it’s not.

According to our research at Insider Monkey, the best opportunity for hedge fund piggybackers to outperform the market lies in the small-cap space. Our newsletter that follows this strategy returned 47.6% in its first year (learn how we did it here), and longer-term returns are equally as promising.

In his interview on CNBC, Cooperman mentioned five of his top value investments: Sprint (S), AIG (AIG), Qualcomm (QCOM), KKR Financial (KFN) and SandRidge Energy (SD). All of these picks are fine and dandy in their own right, but only the last two are actually small-caps. In addition to KKR and SandRidge, Leon Cooperman has a few other small-cap stock picks that you should know about.

Atlas Energy

Atlas Energy (ATLS) is Cooperman’s top small-cap pick, and sits at the seventh largest position in his $6.5 billion equity portfolio. Richard Driehaus and Jim Simons are a couple other names that hold this oil and gas E&P, which is up 45% year-to-date. Shares of Atlas have had such a good 2013 because of a few factors: 1) MLPs have seen rising interest from traditional institutional investors, 2) more ETFs are looking at this space, 3) dividend yields have been growing, and 4) the macro environment for domestic natural gas, oil and NGLs is very bullish.

In addition to the impressive appreciation, Atlas Energy pays a 3.5% dividend yield that has quadrupled since 2011, and the valuation isn’t overblown at an enterprise value 2.3 times its revenue.

Chimera Investment

Chimera Investment (CIM), on the other hand, is a small-cap REIT that has been held by Cooperman since the second quarter of 2012 (see the full history here). Like the mythological origin of its name suggests, Chimera is a multi-faceted REIT that invests in residential MBS and different types of mortgage loans and it breaths quite a bit of fire with a 12% dividend yield.

Although quarterly dividend payments have fluctuated in value, they’ve been consistent in presence, and free cash flow has more than doubled over the past two years. On average, Wall Street expects funds from operations to grow by 5% to 6% a year over the next half-decade, but be aware that FFO has missed analyst targets in four of Chimera’s past five quarters. Even with the volatility, there’s no denying this REIT’s ridiculously attractive yield.

Atlas Pipeline Partners

Keeping Cooperman’s big bet on Atlas Energy in mind, it’s no surprise that the billionaire is also bullish on another MLP affiliated with the company, Atlas Pipeline Partners (APL). The natural gas processor is the 14th largest holding in Cooperman’s equity portfolio, and shares have had a solid year, up 20.8%.

In comparison to Atlas Energy, Atlas Pipeline’s focus as a full-service midstream company has allowed it to generate about twice the cash as its aforementioned ally, and thus, a higher dividend yield. Atlas Pipeline currently offers a yield of 6.5% on its shares and dividend payments have grown in five consecutive years. 

A couple more

We haven’t even discussed KKR and SandRidge yet. The latter is another oil and gas E&P, but unlike some of Cooperman’s other picks in the energy sector, SandRidge does not currently pay a dividend. With earnings growth of more than 40% expected this year alone, however, there’s much more momentum behind any bullish thesis here, and shares are actually pretty cheaply valued at 1.6 times book and a close parity on a price-to-sales basis.

Cooperman has held SandRidge stock since the fourth quarter of 2012 and depending on when he bought in, he could have booked as much as a 15% return so far on his investment.

KKR Financial, meanwhile, sits just inside Leon Cooperman’s 15 largest holdings and offers a whopping dividend yield of 8%. Yes, they’re up only 3.5% over the past year, but shares of KKR Financial are extremely attractive because of their depressed valuation; they trade at less than 7 times forward earnings and a price-to-earnings growth ratio of a mere 0.6. With double-digit annual earnings growth expected over the next five years and positive free cash flow, dividends appear sustainable.

Disclosure: none

9 High Beta Utilities | Good Yields At High Potential

Utility dividend stocks with highest beta ratios published at long-term-investments.blogspot.com. Utilities are necessary within the economy but they have huge problems to increase prices for utility products. Utility stocks normally have a lower volatility because of its stable revenue streams and income focused stakeholder structure. They are less risky than a high growth momentum stock with a highly priced business model that works only in the best dreams.

In today’s screen about the utilities with the highest beta ratio are only 9 stocks with a higher correlation to the broad market. This shows the real investment profile of utilities. Low growth, low risk and high debt as you might know it from real estate trusts.

Below the results are seven stocks with a buy or better rating. Only two big companies with a market capitalization over $10 billion are part of the results. Three are mid-capitalized.

Latest Dividend Growth Alert: Hershey and Motorola Solutions

Seventeen companies announced yesterday to raise its dividends. The biggest company below the latest dividend growth stocks is the chocolate manufacturer Hershey. HSY announced to boost dividends by 15.48 percent. The current yield amounts to 2.07 percent. Additional large capitalized stocks are Motorola Solutions with a 19.23 percent hike, Hartford Financial Services (50 percent hike), Stanley Black & Decker (2.4 percent dividend hike) as well as the gas utility ONEOK. OKE announced a 5.56 percent higher dividend.

The highest yielding stock is the independent oil & gas company Atlas Resource Partners with 9.34 percent dividend yield. 

These are the latest dividend growth stocks:

Company	Dividend Yield in %	Dividend Growth	Payment Period	Ex-Dividend Date	Dividend Payment Date
Atlas Energy	3.37	41.94%	Quarterly	8/2/2013	8/19/2013
Atlas Resource Ptrs	9.89	5.88%	Quarterly	8/2/2013	8/14/2013
Cheesecake Factory	1.37	16.67%	Quarterly	8/5/2013	8/20/2013
Community Trust Bancorp	3.10	1.59%	Quarterly	9/11/2013	10/1/2013
Eastern Co	2.70	10.00%	Quarterly	8/19/2013	9/16/2013
Hartford Fincl Svcs	1.91	50.00%	Quarterly	8/29/2013	10/1/2013
Hershey	2.07	15.48%	Quarterly	8/21/2013	9/13/2013
Interface Inc.	0.63	20.00%	Quarterly	8/7/2013	8/23/2013
MarkWest	4.97	1.20%	Quarterly	8/2/2013	8/14/2013
Motorola Solutions	2.29	19.23%	Quarterly	9/11/2013	10/15/2013
Oneok Inc	2.83	5.56%	Quarterly	8/1/2013	8/15/2013
PulteGroup	1.21	25.00%	Quarterly	8/1/2013	8/12/2013
Sotherly Hotels Inc.	3.58	14.29%	Quarterly	9/11/2013	10/11/2013
Spectra Engy Ptnr	4.49	1.50%	Quarterly	8/1/2013	8/14/2013
Stanley Black&Decker	2.42	2.04%	Quarterly	9/4/2013	9/17/2013
TAL Intl Grp	6.61	3.03%	Quarterly	8/29/2013	9/24/2013
TC PipeLines LP	6.45	3.85%	Quarterly	8/1/2013	8/14/2013

The Best Performing Utilities And Which Of Them Are Still Cheap

Utility dividend stocks with highest performance year-to-date originally published at long-term-investments.blogspot.com. Utilities are often high dividend payers but they also have high debt amounts and their growth abilities are very limited.

Normally, you should not expect higher capital gains due to the slow growth and high investment costs.

It’s surprising that the best performing utilities gained 18 percent to 80 percent within the first six months of the year. I my view, it’s a shift to quality business models with higher yields and stable returns. Investors look for investment alternatives outside the bond sector and utilities are a place to be for the time being.

You can find a small list of the 20 best performing utility dividend stocks. I excluded all companies with a market capitalization below 300 million. They are definitely too risky and some of them have an extraordinary high return. Lower valuated companies dominating the top results. The average market capitalization amounts to 3.6 billion.

Despite the large price increase of the stocks, twelve of them still have a buy or better rating.

12 Best Yielding Utilities With Double-Digit EPS Growth Potential

Utilities with best dividend yields and high earnings per share growth forecasts originally published at "long-term-investments.blogspot.com". Utilities are well-known for its stability and high dividend payments but they offer also high debt and low growth rates. Sure, utilities can give you some kind of safeness but the only thing that let’s your wealth grow is growth.

Growth is very expensive within the utility sector and I am not sure how it works in the United States but in many countries on the world, utilities are regulated by the government, so they cannot increase prices how they like.
Utilities are essential supplier for basic consumptions products like electricity, water, garbage and so on. Prices should be low in order to realize an optimized prosperity of the nation. If prices are too high, the government will be changed at the next election.

For investors is this fact a very hard environment to make money. You can do it but it is much easier in other sectors. If you invest money in foreign utilities, you bet mainly on an inflation growth and a currency gain.
However, a high dividend is not the only solution of wealth. Growth is more important. I prefer low yielding stocks with no legislative rules and high growth. This will help me to grow faster than the inflation.

Today, I like to show you some of the best yielding utilities with the highest expected earnings per share growth for the next half-decade. From 123 listed utilities pay 107 a dividend but only for 12 companies, earnings per share is expected to grow yearly by more than 10 percent.

Gas utilities are the dominant players on my screening result - There are five stocks from the industry. It could be possible that analysts expecting lower gas prices for the mid-term due to the shale gas boom.

Best Dividend Paying Ex-Dividend Shares On February 04, 2013

The best yielding and biggest ex-dividend stocks researched by ”long-term-investments.blogspot.com”. Dividend Investors should have a quiet overview of stocks with upcoming ex dividend dates.

The ex dividend date is the final date on which the new stock buyer couldn’t receive the next dividend. If you like to receive the dividend, you need to buy the stock before the ex dividend date. I made a little screen of the best yielding stocks with a higher capitalization that have their ex date on the next trading day.

A full list of all stocks with payment dates can be found here: Ex-Dividend Stocks February 04, 2013. In total, 22 stocks and preferred shares go ex dividend - of which 9 yield more than 3 percent. The average yield amounts to 4.27%.

Here is the sheet of the best yielding, higher capitalized ex-dividend stocks:

Company	Ticker	Mcap	P/E	P/B	P/S	Yield
Atlas Resource Partners, L.P.	ARP	1.02B	-	1.22	3.65	8.21%
MarkWest Energy Partners LP	MWE	6.96B	120.04	3.04	4.92	5.87%
Delek Logistics Partners, LP	DKL	621.36M	53.94	5.17	0.65	5.79%
Access Midstream Partners, L.P.	ACMP	6.07B	24.99	2.25	9.65	4.77%
Dime Community Bancshares Inc.	DCOM	491.77M	11.80	1.27	2.51	4.06%
Magellan Midstream Partners LP	MMP	11.45B	29.25	7.79	6.52	3.83%
IdaCorp, Inc.	IDA	2.33B	14.41	1.32	2.19	3.28%
Atlas Energy, L.P	ATLS	1.97B	-	4.30	1.32	2.81%
Xilinx Inc.	XLNX	9.52B	20.73	3.38	4.34	2.41%
StellarOne Corporation	STEL	345.34M	17.38	0.80	2.96	2.14%
MetLife, Inc.	MET	40.74B	18.21	0.62	0.60	1.98%
Columbia Banking System Inc.	COLB	801.74M	17.26	1.05	3.23	1.78%
Beam, Inc.	BEAM	9.76B	26.67	2.18	4.08	1.34%
Banco Bradesco S.A.	BBD	70.30B	12.76	2.16	3.43	0.54%
Banco Bradesco S.A.	BBDO	66.12B	12.10	2.04	2.78	0.52%
Cash America International, Inc.	CSH	1.38B	14.09	1.43	0.77	0.29%
Winmark Corp.	WINA	322.75M	22.08	18.91	6.20	0.25%

The Highest Yielding Stocks With Strong Overbought Signals

Dividend Stocks With Fast Stock Price Increase By Dividend Yield – Stock, Capital, Investment. Stocks with a strong increase in share price, especially in the case of unjustifiably pushes, are overbought if the fundamentals don’t support the price change. Here are the best yielding stocks with strong signals to be overbought. Short-term, investors should be careful to buy stocks with such a warning signal. On the other hand, it could be a sign for better future perspectives.

The Highest Yielding Stocks With Strong Overbought Signals

Dividend Stocks With Fast Stock Price Increase By Dividend Yield – Stock, Capital, Investment. Stocks with a strong increase in its share price, especially in the case of unjustifiably pushes, are overbought if the fundamentals don’t support the price change. Here are the best yielding stocks with strong signals to be overbought. Short-term, investors should be careful to buy stocks with such a warning signal. On the other hand, it could be a sign for better future perspectives.

The Best Yielding Utilities With Fastest Earnings Growth

Utility Stocks With Best Growth Forecasts And Highest Yield Researched by Dividend Yield - Stock, Capital, Investment. Growth is an important item for wealth. If you own a business that doubles sales and income in ten years, your investment should have a return of 7.2 percent. If you double it in five years, you will have a return of 14.9 percent. Let’s take a look at the best growth stocks with attractive dividend yields within the utility sector. Utilities are wonderful investment objects because they generate stable revenues. 77 percent of all listed utility stocks have a beta ratio (volatility measure) of less than one.