Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman is still bullish on Alphabet. The Google parent has had a losing year, along with the rest of the tech sector, as the market undergoes a leadership change. Alphabet , down about 30% year to date, remains a holding of Cooperman’s, as does Microsoft , which has lost 24% so far this year. He has no plans to trim his positions. Alphabet, in particular, is “very cheap for what it represents,” the CEO of Omega Advisors said in a CNBC Pro Talk on Wednesday. “It will do well over time. I think it is an ideal holding.” However, while Cooperman calls both Alphabet and Microsoft stocks “excellent,” he has turned to the options market for a little downside protection. He’s sold some call premiums against both names and is getting 15% to 20% annualized returns when he writes the calls, he said. “The market is not as rational as you would like it to be,” said Cooperman, pointing to the proliferation of machine trading. “The machines know everything about pricing but know nothing about value,” he said. “So they push the market into excess of fair value and they push the market down below fair value and I’m trying to capitalize on the mistakes they are making.”
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