Notes From Invest For Kids Chicago: Lasry, Perry, Cooperman, Zell & More

Yesterday at Invest For Kids Chicago, numerous high profile hedge fund managers shared their latest investment ideas. The event had 800 attendees and raised $1.1 million (100% of the proceeds went to charities benefiting children). Please click the links below to view notes on each speaker's presentation:


Invest For Kids Chicago Notes:


Marc Lasry (Avenue Capital): Long General Motors & Hovnanian Bonds


Richard Perry (Perry Capital): GSE Junior Preferred Securities & RBS Tier 1 Securities


Leon Cooperman (Omega Advisors): Charming Shoppes (CHRS), KKR Financial (KFN), E*Trade Financial (ETFC)


Sam Zell (Equity Group Investments): Brazil's Investment Opportunity


Barry Rosenstein (JANA Partners): long McGraw Hill (MHP)


Thomas Russo (Gardner Russo & Gardner): Look abroad for opportunities, Nestle


Michael Milken (Milken Institute): Thoughts on Capital Markets


John Keeley (Keeley Asset Management): ITT Corp (ITT)


Barry Sternlicht (Starwood Capital Group): Likes Lowe's, Toll Brothers, NVR


Michael Elrad (GEM Realty Capital): Long Macerich (MAC)



For more of our coverage of the latest investment conferences, be sure to also head to notes & presentations from the Value Investing Congress.

Leon Cooperman: Long Charming Shoppes, KFN & ETFC ~ Invest For Kids Chicago Notes

At Invest For Kids Chicago yesterday, Leon Cooperman of Omega Advisors gave a presentation on going long Charming Shoppes (CHRS), KKR Financial (KFN), and E*Trade Financial (ETFC).

Be sure to check out all notes from Invest For Kids Chicago where numerous high profile hedge fund managers shared their latest investment ideas.


Long Various Equities

Cooperman previously worked at Goldman Sachs for 25 years and made money in bottom-up stockpicking even when the market did nothing during the first 10 years of his career. He points out that currently everything in the markets is correlated and eventually this will change in time.

He agrees with Marc Lasry that we'll see low growth (1% GDP) and no double-dip recession. In order to dent unemployment, he argues we need to see 3% GDP growth.

Regarding the markets, Cooperman says that "people are light risk and that was why October was up so strong." He believes the market is discounting very conservative set of expectations and that the ECB will do what it takes to solve the Euro crisis. He believes there is no chance of a repeat of 2008.

Cooperman continues to preach that stocks are the best house in the neighborhood. This is the same message he presented at the Value Investing Congress. In particular, he likes three names:

Charming Shoppes (CHRS) - He likes the Layne Bryant division which services a niche of large women's apparel. He thinks the division is worth $700 million while the company has $227 million in cash and $140 million in debt and says it's probably worth 2x.

KKR Financial (KFN) - He likes the debt management arm of KKR as the 9% dividend is 2x covered by earnings. You get a 5-6% return plus the 9% dividend he says.

E*Trade Financial (ETFC) - He continues to like the improvement in the company's mortgage portfolio after their horrible foray into the market went so poorly years ago.

Additionally, Cooperman mentioned he likes the following stocks as well: Apple (AAPL), Boston Scientific (BSX), SLM (SLM), and Energy XXI (EXXI). For more from this manager, head to Cooperman's presentation from the Value Investing Congress here.


You can view full notes from Invest For Kids Chicago here.