Carl Icahn’s company stock drops 30% after IEP slashes quarterly dividend in half

Shares of Carl Icahn’s conglomerate Icahn Enterprises skilled a pointy sell-off Friday after the agency slashed its quarterly dividend in half amid notable brief vendor Hindenburg Analysis’s marketing campaign.

IEP introduced it issued a $1 per depositary unit distribution, which represents a 12% annualized yield. That is in contrast with a $2 dividend within the earlier quarter. The inventory tanked a whopping 30% after the information.

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Icahn’s firm has been on a roller-coaster journey because the Nathan Anderson-led brief vendor took a public brief place in Could, alleging “inflated” asset valuations, amongst different causes. Shares of IEP, a holding firm that’s concerned in myriad companies together with power, automotive and actual property, tumbled practically 44% within the second quarter. The inventory is down 54% 12 months so far.

Hindenburg took subject with IEP’s excessive dividend yield, saying it is “unsupported” by the corporate’s money move and funding efficiency.

“The fee of future distributions will likely be decided by the board of administrators quarterly, based mostly upon present financial circumstances and enterprise efficiency and different components,” 87-year-old investor Icahn mentioned in a press release Friday. “We don’t intend to let a deceptive Hindenburg report intrude with this follow.”

Icahn Enterprises on Friday reported a web lack of $269 million for the second quarter, greater than doubling the lack of $128 million from the identical quarter a 12 months in the past. Icahn attributed the disappointing quarter to the brief promoting exercise in his controlling firms and investments.

“I imagine the second quarter partially mirrored the influence of short-selling on firms we management or put money into, which I attribute to the deceptive and self-serving Hindenburg report regarding our firm. It additionally mirrored the dimensions of the hedge e book relative to our activist technique,” Icahn mentioned.

Within the aftermath of Hindenburg’s feedback, federal investigators sought info concerning IEP’s company governance, capitalization, securities choices, dividends, valuation, advertising and marketing supplies, due diligence and different supplies.

Icahn, probably the most well-known company raider in historical past, made his identify after pulling off a hostile takeover of Trans World Airways within the Eighties, stripping the corporate of its property. Most just lately, the billionaire investor has engaged in activist investing in McDonald’s and biotech agency Illumina.