Carl Icahn has become somewhat infamous for the financial disclosures he feels comfortable making on Twitter. Icahn reckons that reporting financial data on Twitter is one step toward better corporate governance. Right or wrong, he’s not giving up on the idea just yet. The hedge fund manager posted his fund’s returns from July through this week on Twitter earlier today.
Icahn tweeted this morning in response to a Sunday New York Post article that bemoaned the sorry state of activist returns in summer 2013. The report was based on the big investing stories of the summer, many of which saw an activist investor humbled by the poor performance of their intended gold mine.
Sunday’s NY Post article, ‘Radioactivists,’ in its 1st sentence states: “This summer, Wall Street’s activist top guns are shooting blanks…”
— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) August 27, 2013
Icahn tweets returns
According to this morning’s tweet, which can be seen above, Icahn Enterprises LP (NASDAQ:IEP) has returned 19.03% since July 1, pretty good returns in a summer the Post thought was full of hedge fund managers “shooting blanks”. Icahn was personally named in the introduction to the article, alongside Bill Ackman and Dan Loeb.
It’s true that all three of those managers have lost out in activist battles this summer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re losing money. Some of the activist assaults have resulted in massive losses in recent weeks, with Ackman’s attack on J.C. Penney resulting in huge losses.
Icahn was not the worst hit, however, and the article makes note of this. His attempts to get a higher price for Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) resulted in a profit, albeit not as big as Icahn was hoping for.
Icahn activist run at Apple
Carl Icahn appears to be taking a more gentle approach to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). The investor is set to have dinner with the firm’s CEO Tim Cook next month in order to discuss increasing the size of the company’s planned share buyback. Icahn announced his stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), as well as his intentions at the company on Twitter two weeks back.
