Leon Cooperman Quotes

103 Leon Cooperman Quotes (Leon G ‘Lee’ Cooperman, Omega Advisors)

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No matter how rich you become, arrogance is not a luxury you can afford.
Leon Cooperman

[In 2011.] I remind my team of this proverb often: ‘Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up; it knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up; it knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn‘t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you‘d better be running.’
Leon Cooperman

[In October 1996.] I always have a hard time with conventional wisdom.
Leon Cooperman

[In December 2007.] What the wise man does in the beginning, the fool does in the end.
Leon Cooperman

[In October 1996 on his core strategy.] We’re a value-oriented, research-driven firm that buys undervalued stocks, shorts overvalued ones, and participates in selected overseas debt and equity markets. May not be an exciting approach, but it works.
Leon Cooperman

[In October 1996.] We like to be contrarian.
Leon Cooperman

Working gives you money to give to charity, Uncle Sam, or your children. I don’t want to spoil my children.
Leon Cooperman

[In 2011] You have to respect the stock market. If you don‘t, you‘re going to get wiped out.
Leon Cooperman

[In 2011.] We‘re trying to look for the straw hats in the winter. In the winter, people don‘t buy straw hats so they‘re on sale.
Leon Cooperman

[In 2011.] One thing nice about the investment business is that, even though I‘m 68, I continue to learn. You learn something every month and every quarter.
Leon Cooperman



[In 2011 on JP Morgan ‘nifty fifty’ investing philosophy of the 1970’s.] The multiples were all wrong. Their philosophy was ‘Only the right stock at any price’ whereas my philosophy is ‘Any stock or bond at the right price.’
Leon Cooperman

[In 2011] The best advice I can give anyone is exemplified by the following Andrew Carnegie quote: ‘Here lies a man who was wise enough to bring into his service men who knew more than he.’
Leon Cooperman

[In August 2007.] I do not believe recent credit-market turmoil will derail the economy - I view this market drop as a long overdue correction rather than the end of the bull market.
Leon Cooperman

[In July 2008] I determined many years ago that if you want to make money on Wall Street, you work there; you don't invest there. They just pay themselves too well. I would rather look elsewhere for investment opportunities.
Leon Cooperman

[In July 2008.] If you buy things at the right price, that's half the game…
Leon Cooperman

[On his philanthropy.] I try to give back to those organizations that have affected me over my lifetime.
Leon Cooperman

[On future forecasting.] I think it’s much too early to tell. I think all we’ve learned is what we already knew, is that stocks have become like commodities, regrettably, and they go up to a limit and they go down to a limit. And we’ve also known over the years that when they go down, they go down faster than they go up.
Leon Cooperman

New York is the mecca, the financial center.
Leon Cooperman

[In October 1996 on why he was in a Home Depot store.] Economics. My building charges $30 to change a light bulb. I can buy bulbs here for $3 and install them myself. Also, I used to own the stock. You know me. I like to kick the tires whenever I get a chance.
Leon Cooperman

[In October 1996.] People will pay a premium price if you give them premium performance.
Leon Cooperman



[In October 1996] We are fundamentally oriented, do our own research, and stay flexible. Most conventional money managers just buy stocks.
Leon Cooperman

[In October 1996] Flexibility gives us an edge.
Leon Cooperman

[In October 1996] True. This is a stressful business.
Leon Cooperman

[In October 1996] Stocks are heterogeneous, not homogeneous, which means that stocks with superior earnings prospects that are selling at a discount to the market's multiple have an opportunity to outperform the market.
Leon Cooperman

[In October 1996] Our bread-and-butter business is finding undervalued stocks. It's becoming increasingly difficult, but you can find them if you look hard.
Leon Cooperman

[In October 1996 on General Nutrition Cos.] We're convinced is a very undervalued security. We're willing to wait for the market to vindicate our view.
Leon Cooperman

[In October 1996 on Sumner Redstone and Viacom.] he's a 72-year-old I'm happy to vote for. He's got a vision and an excitement about him. I particularly like the fact that everyone's kind of negative on him. We like to be contrarian.
Leon Cooperman

[In October 1996.] We may have a difficult year again, but it won't be because of foreign bonds.
Leon Cooperman

[In October 1996 on life after Goldman Sachs.] A famous philosopher said everyone should have more than one career. Omega is my second career. It gives me the opportunity to focus on managing money.
Leon Cooperman

[In October 1997.] Yes, we have sustained losses, but they are well within our risk parameters. We are up for the year
Leon Cooperman



[In August 2007.] The steady rise in share prices that preceded the plunge contributed to investor complacency; bond buyers were not demanding enough compensation for the risks they assumed. Now fear has replaced complacency, and risk is more appropriately priced.
Leon Cooperman

[In August 2007.] My outlook for the next 12 months has not changed. I believe there's limited downside risk in the U.S. stock market from current levels, and returns over the coming year should be in the low double digits.
Leon Cooperman

[In August 2007.] Bull markets do not die of old age, they die of excesses such as accelerating and above-trend economic growth, rapidly rising inflation, and interest-rate hikes from a hostile Federal Reserve. Those excesses are simply not with us today, nor do I expect their arrival anytime soon.
Leon Cooperman

[In August 2007.] The P/E of the S&P 500 - 15 times this year's earnings - is roughly in line with its long-term average, at a time when return on equity and profit margins are near record levels and the spread between return on capital and cost of capital in the corporate sector is well above average.
Leon Cooperman

[In August 2007.] It's hard for me to believe that Bank of America stock won't outperform ten-year government bond returns over the next decade…
Leon Cooperman

[In December 2007.] I'm still constructive on stocks for 2008, for now, holding aside the potential effects of the 2008 presidential election. While there is certainly a fair amount to worry about - subprime and housing issues, bank write offs against capital, a slowing econ and slowing earnings - there are several reasons to be bullish on stocks.
Leon Cooperman

[In December 2007.] I expect the U.S. economy can escape recession in 2008.
Leon Cooperman

[In December 2007.] Bear markets in the U.S. are usually preceded by an overheating economy, accelerated inflation, tight money and bad valuations. None of these, in our view, are present today.
Leon Cooperman

[In December 2007 on one of the biggest errors by investors in 2007.] They didn't understand the significance of the subprime problems and the massive write-offs in capital losses on the part of large financial institutions.
Leon Cooperman

[In December 2007 on share buybacks.] I would caution companies not to play in that arena unless they have a firm understanding of the business outlook and have concrete reasons to believe that the stock is undervalued. Buybacks should not be a shell game we're playing to support stock prices.
Leon Cooperman



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