Activist Carl Icahn Takes Stakes in Allergan, Herc Holdings, Slashes PayPal Position

Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN)

– Shares Owned by Icahn Capital L.P. (as of June 30): 21.65 Million

– Value of Icahn Capital L.P.’s Holding (as of June 30): $338.45 Million

The activist investor trimmed his firm’s exposure to Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) by 8.41 million shares during the April-to-June period, having finished the second quarter with 21.65 million shares valued at $338.45 million. The provider of voice recognition solutions and natural language understanding technologies has lost 24% of its market value since the beginning of 2016. Nuance Communications reported total revenues of $1.44 billion for the nine months that ended June 30, up $15.7 million year-on-year. The company’s net new bookings at the end of the June quarter decreased by 25.0% year-over-year to $362.9 million, mainly due to a significant, one-time automotive contract won in the June quarter of 2015. The were 33 hedge funds followed by Insider Monkey with stakes in Nuance at the end of the March quarter, amassing nearly 16% of the company’s total number of outstanding shares. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors LLC reported owning 3.15 million shares of Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) through the latest round of 13Fs.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTZ)

– Shares Owned by Icahn Capital L.P. (as of June 30): 4.31 Million

– Value of Icahn Capital L.P.’s Holding (as of June 30): $569.30 Million

Billionaire Carl Icahn owned 4.31 million shares of Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTZ) at the end of June, which were valued at $569.30 million on June 30. As already mentioned, Hertz Global Holdings recently completed the separation of its car rental business and equipment rental business into two separate companies. Hertz Rental Car Holding Company, which comprised the rental-car business, changed its name to Hertz Global Holdings upon closing. Shareholders of the former Hertz Global Holdings received shares in Hertz Rental Car Holding Company at a rate of one share for every five shares of the old Hertz Global Holdings. Assuming Carl Icahn did not adjust his 21.24 million-share stake in the old Hertz Global Holding, which he owned on March 31, he should have remained with 4.25 million shares of the rental-car business following the spin-off. Hence, it appears that the billionaire activist investor did not slash its stake in Hertz Global Holdings as many media reports suggested, but he did acquire more shares of Herc Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HRI) following the spin-off (he was supposed to have around 1.42 million shares of Herc after the spin-off). Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies has 2.01 million shares of Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTZ) among its holdings as of the end of the second quarter.