Tag Archives: Bill Ackman

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Are Activist Investors Ever Good for Shareholders?

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By Brendan Byrnes, The Motley Fool

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In the video below, The Motley Fool speaks with Roger Martin, strategy expert and dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. We discuss activist shareholders, which have been increasingly in the news lately with companies like Herbalife, Dell, and J.C. Penney. The question many individual investors are asking is: Are these activist investors good for the stocks that I own? Martin explains that they will likely create short-term value, but long-term investors should be wary of activist investors.

A transcript follows the video.

The full interview with Roger Martin can be seen here, in which we discuss a number of topics including Bill Ackman, innovation, corporate responsibility, executive compensation, and how to pick out great companies. Martin is the coauthor of Playing to Win, a new book focusing on strategy written with former Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley.

If you’re on the hunt for a great stock idea, The Motley Fool’s chief investment officer has selected his No. 1 stock for the next year. Find out which stock it is in the brand-new free report: “The Motley Fool’s Top Stock for 2013.” Just click here to access the report and find out the name of this under-the-radar company.

Brendan Byrnes: Let’s talk about activist investors. You saw Icahn recently purchasing a 6% stake in Dell. He’s got 10% of Netflix. Bill Ackman we talked about earlier, obviously J.C. Penney. He lost his proxy fight with Target.

If I’m a shareholder and I own one of these companies, should you welcome an activist investor coming in? What effect does that have on strategy?

Roger Martin: I think it really depends. What I’ve seen of the activist investors … I actually haven’t seen any activist investor out there be able to improve the long run operations of the core company they’ve gotten involved with.

There’s undoubtedly examples where it’s happened, but I don’t see any consistency of that.

What I see is them triggering something that makes the capital markets very happy in the short term, so when Ackman went in and said, “Fortune Brands, you have to split into three companies,” everybody said, “Oh, wow, this is great. We’ve released all this value,” so there’s a bump.

The question is, can you make the performance of each of the companies that much better? I think a short-term shareholder, if an activist comes in and forces them to divest something — sell off their real estate assets or monetize some portfolio of assets — they can have a bump in the stock.

But I think if you’re actually a long-term shareholder — let’s say you’re a pension fund or something that wants to hold a given stock for 30 years and an activist comes in — I don’t think it’s particularly good for you because what they tend to do is make their money on a one-time bump.

As soon as we create the spinoff and we get a bump …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

An Interview With Roger Martin

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By Brendan Byrnes, The Motley Fool

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In the interview below, we chat with Roger Martin, strategy expert and dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

We touch on a number of subjects in this interesting interview, including Bill Ackman, innovation, corporate responsibility, executive compensation, and how to pick out great companies. Martin is the coauthor of Playing to Win, a new book focusing on strategy written with former Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley. 

A full transcript follows the video.

If you’re on the hunt for a great stock idea, The Motley Fool’s chief investment officer has selected his No. 1 stock for the next year. Find out which stock it is in the new free report: “The Motley Fool’s Top Stock for 2013.” Just click here to access the report and find out the name of this under-the-radar company.

Brendan Byrnes: Hi, I’m Brendan Byrnes and I’m joined today by Roger Martin. Roger is the coauthor of Playing to Win, and also the dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Thanks again, it’s good to see you.

Roger Martin: It’s good to be back.

Brendan: You know a thing or two about strategy, having helped turn around Procter & Gamble. I wanted to ask you about Bill Ackman and J.C. Penney. You wrote in a blog post recently that “Bill Ackman shows almost no evidence of understanding enough about strategy to turn around a company.” What’s he doing wrong?

Martin: Well, I think he understands a whole lot about capital markets and a whole lot about how to make investors happy, but I’m not sure he knows how to make consumers — customers — happy in a way that brings about competitive advantage.

What I see with J.C. Penney is sort of a fallacy that I see often in the strategy of companies, which is that it’s good enough to try to improve things. It’s not. Improving is good, but only in the context of having a goal to have an advantage against competitors with some set of customers so that customers say, “I need this company.”

If you just improve a company, you say, “I’m going to get their inventory turns up, or their sales per square foot up,” that ends up often disappointing. I think that’s, in some sense, what’s happening at J.C. Penney.

They just announced a huge fourth-quarter loss. Same-store sales were down almost 30% in 2012, but the focus has been on, “Oh, we’ve got the new J.C. Penney” — 10% percent of the stores are this new store within a store and it’s double the sales per square foot of the rest of J.C. Penney — “so as soon as we get the stores converted over to 100% of this our sales per square foot,” which were 130 apparently, and are 260 within the little store within a store, new J.C. Penney, “everything will be fine.”

But that begs the question, “Who are you competing against?” …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Want to Invest Like Warren Buffett? There's an App for That

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By Amanda Alix, The Motley Fool

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After decades of trying to figure it out, ordinary investors can now be privy to the secret sauce that seasons the investment mojo of icons like Warren Buffett, Bill Ackman, Leon Copperman, and Carl Icahn — for a mere $2 per month.

Sound too good to be true? Well, I may have overstated what the iBillionaire app is actually offering, which is the ability to compare your own investment picks with those of more than 10 stars of the investment world. Will this help the average investor make better decisions? iBillionaire thinks so.

Secrets of the pros
Of course, just knowing what the most successful investors have in their portfolios and what they paid for an average share won’t be of much help to the rest of us. But, there’s always the chance that tracking what these pros do on a regular basis might reveal some tips the average person might not have otherwise thought about.

Take Warren Buffett. One of the world’s most successful investors, he’s never been shy about sharing what he thinks are the best investing rules to live by. Despite Buffett‘s recent lament that his company, Berkshire Hathaway   didn’t perform up to his standards last year, that blip was only the ninth time in nearly 50 years that Berkshire lagged the S&P 500.

When it comes to investments, Buffett is usually on the money. His recent purchase of Heinz prompted some to think he overpaid, but others see an immediate return of more than 6%, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Then, of course, there are his investments in the biggest of the banks. At the end of 2012, Buffett’s stake in Wells Fargo was valued at nearly $17 billion, and the Heinz deal threw some juicy M&A work the bank’s way, as well.

And, don’t forget his opportunistic investment in Bank of America . Buffett’s infusion of $5 billion into that bank during a time of crisis in 2011 was not just an act of charity. His preferred shares pay a sweet 6% annual dividend, and the option to buy 700 million more shares at a smidge over $7 each holds the promise of billions in profits.

Immersion technique?
Doubtless, the average investor will never see the kind of success that has set Warren Buffett apart from the investing crowd. For two bucks each month, though, it might be fun to have quick, convenient access to the portfolio picks and latest snippets of wisdom from your favorite investing idol. Who knows, maybe you’ll pick up a tip that covers the price of the app — or more.

Thanks to the savvy of investing legend Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway‘s book value per share has grown a mind-blowing 586,817% over the past 48 years. But with Buffett aging and Berkshire rapidly evolving, is this insurance conglomerate still a buy today? In The Motley Fool’s premium report on the company, Berkshire expert Joe Magyer provides investors …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

These Dow Stocks Will Boost Their Dividends Soon

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By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

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The 30 stocks among the Dow Jones Industrials aren’t just the leaders in their respective industries. They also pay out billions of dollars in dividends to their shareholders, making them some of the most sought-after dividend stocks in the market.

But even better than getting reliable income from a stock is getting growing amounts of income year after year. With so many Dow stocks having long streaks of raising their dividends on an annual basis, a good number of them have made it a habit to implement their higher payouts at the same time every year. Let’s look at the stocks in the Dow with long streaks of annual dividend increases that are due to make healthier payments to their shareholders in the near future.

Procter & Gamble
With two dozen billion-dollar brands, Procter & Gamble is a global powerhouse, selling well-known consumer products to billions of households around the world. Even though the company has been under fire lately from activist investor Bill Ackman and others for failing to keep up its history of innovation and adept business execution, it has gotten through tough periods before in its 56-year history of raising dividends annually.

Last year, P&G announced its 7% dividend increase on April 13, around the same time as it has boosted payouts in past years. A boost in its quarterly dividend to an even $0.60 per share would be consistent with that past rise, raising the stock‘s yield to 3.1% and also increasing confidence that the company is turning things around.

ExxonMobil
Exxon is the largest company in the Dow by market cap, and it also became the world’s largest dividend payer last year, when it boosted its payout by a whopping 21%. What’s particularly impressive is that at the same time that Exxon makes such substantial dividend payments, the amount it spends on share buybacks is twice as big as it spends in cash returned directly to shareholders.

Last year’s big dividend announcement came on April 25, marking its 30th consecutive annual increase, and that timing was consistent with past years’ dividend increases. Expecting a repeat of last year’s boost of $0.10 per share is probably too much to hope for, given a history of more modest $0.02 and $0.03 increases, but with a payout ratio of just 22%, Exxon has room to give shareholders whatever size of raise it thinks is most appropriate.

Chevron
Chevron is No. 2 to Exxon in the U.S., but it still has an impressive record of 25 straight annual dividend increases. It also pays a higher yield than Exxon, with Chevron’s 3% yield beating out its larger rival by half a percentage point.

Last year, Chevron also released news of its higher dividend on April 25, with a big 11% boost continuing a run of accelerated growth in recent years. A similar increase this year would take the payout to an even …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

2 State Pension Funds Want More JC Penney Details from Ackman

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By Reuters

Ron Johnson, chief executive officer of J.C. Penney Co., exits State Supreme court in New York, U.S., on Friday, March 1, 2013. Johnson took the witness stand to testify in a dispute between his department-store chain and Macy?s Inc. over the right to sell Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. merchandise. Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Ron Johnson, chief executive officer of J.C. Penney Co.(Jin Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Katya Wachtel

BOSTON/NEW YORK – Two institutional investors with William Ackman‘s $12 billion hedge fund plan to reach out to the manager to get more information about the firm’s big bet on ailing retailer JC Penney (JCP), whose stock has dropped 21 percent this year.

Officials with two state pension funds that, combined, oversee assets of more than $120 billion told Reuters they want Ackman to give them more information about Pershing Square Capital Management’s portfolio and to say more about the long-range plan for turning around JCPenney’s fashion lines.

The pension officials did not want to be identified because they had not yet set up their meetings with Ackman. The manager, whose fund is sitting on a roughly $500 million paper loss in JCPenney stock, declined to comment.

It’s not uncommon for pension managers and institutional investors to seek a private meeting with hedge fund managers, especially when a big bet or a portfolio is underperforming.

The move by two of Ackman’s investors is an indication that some investors are growing uneasy with Pershing Square‘s stake of 39 million shares in JC Penney, which the hedge fund began amassing in 2010.

“People are reading a lot about Bill Ackman these days and have questions, and while these kind of hedge funds can’t speak to everyone, keeping their very largest clients informed will have benefits,” said Don Steinbrugge, managing partner at investment consulting firm Agecroft Partners LLC, in Richmond, Virginia.

Pershing Square is up 3.6 percent for the year through February, compared with a 2.8 percent gain for the broader $2.6 trillion hedge fund industry.

The pension plan officials said they are also concerned about Ackman’s other very large and public bet -an estimated $1 billion short position in shares of nutritional supplement company Herbalife. Ackman is betting that Herbalife will be exposed as an unsustainable pyramid scheme and the stock will collapse. He currently has a $200 million gain on that bet.

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Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has taken a large stake in Herbalife (HLF) and has engaged in a very public war of words with Ackman over the company.

Meanwhile, at least one prominent hedge fund manager is beginning to line up against Ackman on the short side on JC Penney. Reuters reported last week that York Capital and Morgan Stanley (MS) are shorting the debt of JC Penney, where Ackman sits on the board.

Earlier this week, market speculation that Ackman’s handpicked CEO Ron Johnson might be leaving briefly pushed JC Penney shares up 5 percent on Tuesday.

But not all investors are pushing for Ackman to talk more about JC Penney. Given the fund’s strong track record over the years and current gains, several investors said they are very happy with Ackman and his team.<br …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Lessons From Stock Gurus' Squabbles And Three Dividend-Paying Guru Stocks

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By Charles Sizemore, Contributor

This year might rightfully be called the year of the “Clash of the Gurus” to anyone watching the news. The biggest is the very public slugfest between activist investors Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn over nutritional supplements company Herbalife (NYSE:HLF). Ackman is short 20 million shares of Herbalife at last count, and Icahn is long at least 14 million. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

J.C. Penney Takes Another Hit

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By Andrew Marder, The Motley Fool

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My brain is starting to cement J.C. Penney and margaritas together in my thoughts — whenever I hear either term, I think, “On the rocks.” Yesterday’s bad news came from two sources. It’s been reported that investment fund Vornado has sold off a massive chunk of its J.C. Penney holding. According to The Wall Street Journal, Vornado is dumping 10 million shares, and cutting its losses. That has been the main driver behind the stock‘s 10% midday fall.

On top of that, yesterday the justice overseeing the Macy’s , Martha Stewart Living , and J.C. Penney litigation mess said that J.C. Penney may not ever be able to put Stewart’s items on the shelves. The retailer has pressed ahead with the promotion and launch of the line, even as it’s being sued by Macy’s to stop the partnership. Judge Jeffrey Oing said that he may put the brakes on the whole operation, telling Penney’s lawyers, “That’s the risk your client took.” Is there any hope in sight for investors and the business, or are we watching the last desperate gasps of an American dynasty?

It’s not good news
The move from Vornado is clearly the most troubling. The company bought into Penney alongside Bill Ackman back in 2010. In a rare spectacle, the big fund seems to be getting hosed just like the little guy. Vornado has already lost around $300 million on its position, with this newest sale adding to the fall. But the company isn’t getting out completely. This sale represents close to 40% of the company’s position, which last week accounted for 11% of J.C. Penney’s outstanding shares.

The move is obviously an about-face on the company’s outlook, and more subtly on the belief that CEO Ron Johnson can make the big difference that he was expected to make. At the time of the Vornado purchase, its CEO Steven Roth had effectively sworn off these sorts of big investments. With the buy, the trust made a bold and loud move. Roth himself said of the deal, “If you look at the math and you look at the investment, I think you’ll agree it’s a pretty terrific investment.” Now that terrific investment — made at over $25 per share — is looking horrific.

The pronouncement from Judge Oing just compounds the misery. Not only does J.C. Penney now have to worry about a lawsuit sucking cash out of the company, it also has to worry about sunk investment costs associated with the Martha Stewart shops. Those costs cut into Martha Stewart, as well. The company reported $800,000 worth of Penney-Macy’s related legal fees last quarter. 

The fight ahead
For all of the bad news, the legal wrangling is still anybody’s game. While Judge Oing has been pronouncing against J.C. Penney, he also shot down a similar injunction last year. That’s one of the things complicating the case — there are odd player interactions. Macy’s filed two …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

CNBC: Icahn Buys 100 Million Shares of Dell

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By John Divine, The Motley Fool

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Citing unnamed “trading sources,” CNBC reported this afternoon that activist investor Carl Icahn — who has been in the news quite a bit recently for his feud with Herbalife short Bill Ackman — has amassed an ownership stake in computer giant Dell . Buying close to 100 million shares of the stock, the report suggests that the legendary Wall Street financier could now own around 6% of the company.

Closing 1.8% higher after trading at a slight loss for most of the day, Dell has been the subject of much recent speculation regarding its future as a company. The PC maker already agreed in February to be taken private at the hands of its own founder and CEO, Michael Dell, for $13.65 per share. Today’s closing price of $14.32 indicates that shareholders believe they can get a sweeter deal; reportedly, Icahn’s preference is that the company leverages itself highly, and pays out a massive one-time dividend. The dividend sought by Icahn may even be as high as $9 per share.

The article CNBC: Icahn Buys 100 Million Shares of Dell originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor John Divine has no position in any stocks mentioned. 
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Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Medifast Earnings: An Early Look

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By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

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Earnings season is winding down, with most companies already having reported their quarterly results. But there are still some companies left to report, and Medifast is about to release its quarterly earnings. The key to making smart investment decisions with stocks releasing their quarterly reports is to anticipate how they’ll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you’ll be less likely to make an uninformed knee-jerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.

With increased attention to obesity and weight control among the health-care industry, Medifast is trying to capitalize with its combination of weight-loss centers and custom-made nutritional products. But will a controversial competitor hurt Medifast’s results? Let’s take an early look at what’s been happening with Medifast over the past quarter and what we’re likely to see in its quarterly report on Thursday.

Stats on Medifast

Analyst EPS Estimate

$0.25

Change From Year-Ago EPS

178%

Revenue Estimate

$82.9 million

Change From Year-Ago Revenue

19%

Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters

2

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Will Medifast give investors what they want this quarter?
Analysts have generally been comfortable with their calls for Medifast’s earnings over the past few months, keeping their estimates stable for the just-ended quarter. Yet although they’ve boosted full-year 2013 projections by $0.02 per share, the stock has plunged, falling 23% just since early December.

Medifast has taken collateral damage in the fight over Herbalife , which sells dietary and nutritional supplements along the same lines as some of Medifast’s products. With investors Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn having vocally taken opposing sides about whether Herbalife is a pyramid scheme, the legitimacy of the entire multilevel marketing concept has taken a hit, and that helped send Medifast shares lower in sympathy.

But Medifast has also been dealing with a lot of turnover at its top levels. After dealing with a CEO change last year, the company’s acting CFO resigned in late December after having served just a single month, raising questions about whether the move was prompted by anything troubling at Medifast.

Despite all these troubles, Medifast has been able to grow its earnings, in stark contrast to NutriSystem and its breakeven results. Yet margins on its products and services are much lower than competitor Weight Watchers International , perhaps because Weight Watchers has done a better job of penetrating large distribution channels through grocery stores.

In its quarterly report, watch for Medifast to talk about how it intends to respond to the Herbalife situation, as well as any plans to boost margins. If Medifast can get its margins closer to Weight Watchers, then it stands to give investors good returns as long as it can keep growing its revenue.

The best investing approach is to choose great companies and stick with them for …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

21 Reasons No One May Be Selling J.C. Penney Stock

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By 24/7 Wall St.

JCP-logo

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CNBC reported a rumor that a block of J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JPC) stock was for sale, with the transaction represented by Deutsche Bank. The Wall Street Journal claims the seller is Vornado Realty Trust. Its chief, Steve Roth, sits on the J.C. Penney board. But the facts have not been confirmed and may be wrong for several reasons.

The first set of potential mistakes centers around which shareholder may be the seller. Apparently seven shareholders have enough stock to dump the 10 million shares in question. These include Vornado, Pershing Square — which is J.C. Penney’s largest shareholder and a firm controlled by J.C. Penney board member Bill Ackman — and Dodge & Cox. Under any circumstance, it would be odd that a board member, in this case Roth, would so publicly break with the company and continue to be a board member.

What also may or may not be true is the price at which the shares are being sold. Media reports put that amount at $16.40 to $16.60 a share. That number could be off for a number of reasons, not the least of which that J.C. Penney shares dropped below $16 after hours yesterday. If Vornado, or any other shareholder, wants to dump a large block, it will not be at $16.60

Finally, Deutsche Bank may not represent the seller of the shares. Journalists covering the rumor may have missed the fact that several investment banks have may have joined in an effort to peddle the shares. Or, if the shares are not for sale, no investment bank is involved at all.

The J.C. Penney rumor is similar to others that race around Wall St. fueled by the media. News outlets want to be early to market with “news” which, in the haste, may turn out to be no story at all. Perhaps some portion of the story is correct, but most of the facts are not.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Corporate Governance, Rumors Tagged: JCP

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

NutriSystem Earnings: An Early Look

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By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

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Earnings season is winding down, with most companies already having reported their quarterly results. But there are still some companies left to report, and NutriSystem is about to release its quarterly earnings. The key to making smart investment decisions with stocks releasing their quarterly reports is to anticipate how they’ll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you’ll be less likely to make an uninformed knee-jerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.

With a recent rise in attention to the obesity epidemic in the U.S., NutriSystem finds itself in the right business at the right time. But is the company taking full advantage of its good fortune? Let’s take an early look at what’s been happening with NutriSystem over the past quarter and what we’re likely to see in its quarterly report on Tuesday.

Stats on NutriSystem

Analyst EPS Estimate

($0.14)

Year-Ago EPS

($0.04)

Revenue Estimate

$63.9 million

Change From Year-Ago Revenue

(4.5%)

Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters

0

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Will NutriSystem gain or lose for investors this quarter?
Analysts have been mildly optimistic about NutriSystem in recent months, keeping their fourth-quarter calls stable but boosting full-year 2013 estimates by $0.02 per share. Yet the stock hasn’t moved a lot, rising less than 5% since early December.

The weight-loss industry that NutriSystem has tapped into seems as though it would have clear and simple profit potential. Yet NutriSystem has struggled to be profitable, even as similar business models from Weight Watchers and Medifast have resulted in at least somewhat better results for those companies and their shareholders. For its part, Weight Watchers offers a more diversified experience with its grocery-store food products, going beyond NutriSystem’s focus on custom-tailored meals delivered direct from the company and Medifast’s meal-replacement shakes.

Moreover, the entire industry has been rocked by the big fight over Herbalife . With big-name investors Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn taking opposite sides of the battle, allegations that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme have had collateral damage across the industry. NutriSystem isn’t a multilevel marketing company, but it’s possible that potential customers are simply avoiding the entire space.

In its quarterly report, look for NutriSystem’s new CEO, Dawn Zier, to give her vision on the future of the company and her strategy going forward. With her engineering background, Zier has investors hoping that she can engineer a turnaround that will boost the stock from its tepid performance lately and get NutriSystem making money again.

The best investing approach is to choose great companies and stick with them for the long term. The Motley Fool’s free report “3 Stocks That Will Help You Retire Rich” names stocks that could help you build long-term wealth and retire well, along with some winning wealth-building strategies …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Herbalife Says It Will Clarify Distributor Disclosures, Ackman Doesn't Buy It

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By Steve Schaefer, Forbes Staff

Herbalife says it will disclose more detail on how many distributors in its multi-level marketing program are in it to make money, and refine its nomenclature to “simplify” and address the lack of clarity in its organization. It is the murky nature of the company’s disclosures that has been seized on by short seller Bill Ackman in his offensive against the company he says is a pyramid scheme. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

With Herbalife Options, Icahn Repeats Netflix Playbook

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By JJ Kinahan, Contributor

A few months ago, I wrote about how Carl Icahn used call options when to build up his exposure to Netflix (NFLX) and now it appears he is using a similar strategy in Herbalife (HLF).  Obviously the HLF situation has become much more interesting because of the very public feud that he is engaged in with fellow “rich guy” Bill Ackman. We rarely get to see investors of this status fully lay out their strategy and have such a clash of the titans be it for business or personal reasons. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

Icahn Squeezes Ackman With Big Stake In Herbalife

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By Steve Schaefer, Forbes Staff

Update Feb. 15: Bill Ackman issued the following statement in response to Icahn’s stake Friday morning: We invest based on a careful analysis of the facts.   After 18 months of due diligence, we have concluded that it is a certainty that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme.  Our conclusions are unaffected by who is on the other side of the investment.  Our goal was to shine a spotlight on Herbalife.  To the extent that Mr. Icahn is helping achieve this objective, we welcome his involvement Shares of Herbalife were slightly off their late Thursday highs, up 17.2% at $44.85 in pre-market trading Friday. …read more
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News, Politics, Government

Herbalife A Target? Absolutely

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By mergermarket, Contributor by Michael Ballaban With Carl Icahn and Bill Ackman’s now epic bit of bickering on CNBC in the TV history books, I remain hopeful that some out there are still wondering who is right rather than who can shout the loudest. Ackman, CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, who holds a short position in Herbalife and has aggressively criticized the company, debated his position on Friday against Icahn, who has gone long on the stock.
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News, Politics, Government

S&P 500 Tops 1,500 For The First Time Since 2007 As Apple Loses #1 Spot

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By Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes Staff In an action-packed day on Wall Street that featured a verbal brawl between hedge fund titans Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn, the S&P 500 managed to close above 1,500 for the first time since 2007, before the financial crisis.  The index is up a hefty 5.4% this year, despite the precipitous decline in Apple’s stock price, which lost its crown as largest publicly traded company to Exxon Mobil.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest