Billionaire investor Carl Icahn recently increased his stake in Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) to 12.64% from 9.8%, according to an SEC filing. The company engages in the energy business and operates through two business segments, Natural Gas Operations and Utility Infrastructure Services.
Icahn, a more than 10% owner of SWX stock, bought 2,332,835 shares of the company on March 10 for a total transaction value of $140.25 million. The total value of SWX stock in Icahn’s portfolio currently stands at $530.32 million.
The investor’s purchase is related to the closing of Southwest Gas’ underwritten public offering of 3,576,180 shares of its common stock on March 10 at a price of $60.12 per share.
It is worth mentioning that Icahn disclosed his position in SWX stock in October 2022. At the time, the investor was opposing Southwest Gas’ move to acquire Dominion Energy’s (D) transportation and storage business, Questar Pipeline.
As per the data collected by TipRanks, Icahn has had a 56% success rate in his 302 transactions in the past year, with an average return of 2.1% per transaction.
TipRanks offers daily insider transactions as well as a list of top corporate insiders. It also provides a list of hot stocks that boast either a Very Positive or Positive insider confidence signal.
Icahn’s Recent Proxy Fight
As per a WSJ report, Icahn is preparing a proxy fight at Illumina (ILMN), claiming that the company’s acquisition of Grail Inc. cost its shareholders close to $50 billion. He also aims to nominate three candidates to the company’s board.
Is SWX a Good Investment?
Currently, Wall Street is sidelined on Southwest Gas with a Hold consensus rating. This is based on three Holds assigned in the past three months. The average price target of $51.36 implies a possible downside of 13.4% from current levels. Shares of Southwest Gas have declined nearly 3% since the start of this year.
