Billionaire Carl Icahn bets on energy
Superinvestor Carl Icahn’s Icahn Enterprises has maintained its large investments in energy companies and added a new energy company to its portfolio.
This was revealed in Icahn’s 13F filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, a quarterly requirement for all investors managing over $100 million.
Icahn is the founder and controlling shareholder of the diversified holding company Icahn Enterprises.
Born in Queens, New York, in 1936, he studied philosophy at Princeton University before working as a stockbroker. In 1968, he started his own investment firm.
By the 1980s, Icahn’s aggressive investment style had won him global notoriety, and he became one of the wealthiest people in the world.
Famously an activist investor, Icahn has a reputation for buying out large stakes in companies whose share prices are down and pressuring management to make changes to benefit shareholders.
Icahn’s investing history entails several high-profile corporate battles, including his successful campaign to break up RFR Nabisco and his failed attempt to take over Time Warner.
In 2023, Icahn Enterprises plummeted by 53% in value, causing Icahn’s net worth to drop by over $2 billion.
In May 2023, Hindenburg Research took a public short position against Icahn Enterprises, accusing the company of being “significantly overvalued” and propped up by a “Ponzi-like economic structure.”
Icahn Enterprises’ portfolio
The final quarter of 2023 saw notable changes to Icahn Enterprise’s stock portfolio.
The firm bought a stake in American Electric Power for the first time, adding 1.21 million of the company’s shares to its portfolio.
Icahn Enterprises also dumped its stake of 1.04 million shares in Crown Holdings, a US packaging company.
Icahn Enterprises significantly increased its stake in its own shares by buying an additional 17.06 million shares – a 4.86% increase from Q3 2023.
Finally, Icahn Enterprises decreased its stake in FirstEnergy by 58.22%.
Icahn’s portfolio remains concentrated around the energy industry, with 82.94% of his stocks being in energy.
Following Icahn Enterprises, the firm’s top holdings are CVR Energy at 18.52%, Southwest Gas Holdings at 6.4% and Occidental Petroleum at 5.88%.
| Company | Percent of portfolio | Change | Value |
| Icahn Enterprises | 57.94 | Add 4.86% | $6,323,856,000 |
| CVR Energy Inc. | 18.52 | No change | $2,020,779,000 |
| Southwest Gas Holdings Inc. | 6.40 | No change | $698,282,000 |
| Occidental Petroleum | 5.88 | No change | $641,778,000 |
| Bausch Health | 2.55 | No change | $278,463,000 |
| FirstEnergy Corp. | 1.98 | Reduce 58.22% | $215,824,000 |
| Dana Inc. | 1.91 | No change | $208,726,000 |
| Conduent Inc. | 1.28 | No change | $139,245,000 |
| American Electric Power | 0.90 | Buy | $97,894,000 |
| SandRidge Energy Inc. | 0.60 | No change | $65,873,000 |
| Bausch + Lomb Corp | 0.55 | No change | $59,710,000 |
| Illumina Inc. | 0.55 | No change | $59,873,000 |
| International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. | 0.48 | No change | $52,186,000 |
| Newell Brands Inc. | 0.47 | No change | $51,566,000 |
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