market folly

Activist investor Carl Icahn has submitted a slew of filings to the SEC recently regarding his positions in Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ) and Herbalife (HLF). 

Also, in an interview with Bloomberg, he noted that he left Donald Trump's victory party to put about $1 billion to work betting on US equities as futures sold off sharply on the election news.  This comes only a few weeks after Icahn said companies were overvalued considering the risk premium.


Icahn Adds To Hertz Stake

Per an amended 13D, Icahn now owns 33.77% of Hertz with just over 28 million shares.  He bought on the recent sell-off on November 8th and in total purchased over 15 million shares at prices of $22.64 and $25.02.


Per Yahoo Finance, Hertz Global "engages in the car rental business in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Africa, the Middle East, and New Zealand. It operates the Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty, and Firefly car rental brands in approximately 9,980 corporate and licensee locations"


Also Boosts Herbalife Holdings Again

We previously highlighted how Icahn recently bought $100 million worth of Herbalife shares.  And he's at it again, per a newly submitted 13D.  He now owns 24.18% of HLF with 22.5 million shares, up from the 21.44 million we previously reported on.  The filing was made due to activity on November 8th.

Per Google Finance, Herbalife is "a global nutrition company. The Company develops and sells weight management, healthy meals and snacks, sports and fitness, energy and targeted nutritional products, as well as personal care products."