Icahn Cuts Netflix Stake in Half

by Christopher Freeburn | October 23, 2013 9:30 am

[1]Shares of Netflix (NFLX[2]) fell almost 2% in Wednesday pre-market trading after it prominent investor trimmed his stake in the video streaming and DVD rental company[3].

On Tuesday, documents filed with securities regulators showed that billionaire Carl Icahn had sold about 3 million Netflix shares over the prior twelve days, including 2.4 million shares that day. The sales are estimated to have generated between $700 million and $800 million in profits for Icahn, Reuters notes.

The sales will slash Icahn’s stake in Netflix from 9.4% in June down to about 4.5%. Icahn acquired the shares more than a year ago[4] for an average price of $58 a share. Since then, Netflix shares have soared in value and currently trade above $322 a share.

In the SEC documents, Icahn noted that “as a hardened veteran of seven bear markets I have learned that when you are lucky and/or smart enough to have made a total return of 457% in only 14 months it is time to take some of the chips off the table.”

Icahn reserved particular praise for Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. He also thanked Kevin Spacey, the star of Netflix’s hit series[5] House of Cards, by name.

Recently, Icahn has taken a significant stake in technology giant Apple (AAPL[6]) and has pressured its CEO to increase the size of a share buyback[7].

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2013/10/icahn-cuts-netflix-stake-half/

---