Hedge fund heavyweight Leon Cooperman, CEO of Omega Advisors sees the stock market rising 6 percent for the rest of the year.
Stocks are trading at about fair value,
he told CNBC. Stocks should trade at about 16 times earnings now, he said. With a consensus earnings estimate of $117 per share for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, that would put the index at 1,872, not far from Monday's close of 1,877.17.
"For the end of this year, the market . . . is looking well for 2015, and we think it should be," Cooperman said.
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"Then mark it up for another 6 percent, and that gives you a number close to the mid-1,900s, and that's kind of our central scenario." A 6 percent increase from Monday's close would put the S&P 500 at 1,990.
"I would be surprised if it rages. I think it'll continue to age, because most bear markets relate to recession, and it does not look like a recession is in the cards anytime soon," Cooperman said.
The level of economic growth, profits, inflation and interest rates doesn't justify strong gains, he said.
Many other market participants are bullish on stocks too.
"We saw with the jobs data on Friday that the numbers were stronger than anticipated. Now that the weather is getting better, investors are thinking there’s no reason to be dumping stocks right now,"
Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors, told Bloomberg.
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