Shares of Icahn Enterprises (NASDAQ: IEP) were down in morning trading on Tuesday morning after short-seller Hindenburg Research went after activist investor, Carl Icahn‘s Icahn Enterprises.
The research firm has taken a short position against IEP alleging that asset valuations of IEP are “inflated” and its shares have a very high net asset value premium compared to its peers.
The report stated, “Overall, we think Icahn, a legend of Wall Street, has made a classic mistake of taking on too much leverage in the face of sustained losses: a combination that rarely ends well.”
Icahn Enterprises is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and is a holding company involved in multiple businesses including energy, automotive, food packaging, metals, and real estate.
Hindenburg Research has also alleged that Icahn’s current dividend yield of around 15.8% is the highest dividend yield of any U.S. large-cap company, and is “entirely unsupported by IEP’s cash flow and investment performance, which has been negative for years.” The report alleges that IEP’s investment portfolio has lost around 53% since 2014 and IEP has cumulatively burned free cash flows of around $4.9 billion over the same period.
Moreover, Hindenburg has stated that the high dividend yield “is made possible (for now) because Carl Icahn owns roughly 85% of IEP and has been largely taking dividends in units (instead of cash), reducing the overall cash outlay required to meet the dividend payment for remaining unitholders.”
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IEP stock has gained by more than 10% in the past year.