Icahn Boosts Stake in Xerox Corp (NYSE:XRX) Ahead of Separation
– Number of shares owned by Carl Icahn as of March 31: 92.38 Million
– Value of Carl Icahn’s holding as of March 31: $1.03 Billion
The feared activist investor increased his position in Xerox Corp (NYSE:XRX) by 5.94 million shares or roughly 6% during the January-to-March period, ending the first quarter with 92.38 million shares. The reshuffled stake was worth $1.03 billion on March 31 and made up 4.8% of Mr. Icahn’s equity portfolio. Earlier this year, Xerox announced plans to separate its Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) business from the Document Technology and Document Outsourcing business by spinning-off the former. More importantly, Xerox’s management and Carl Icahn reached an agreement stipulating that three Icahn-designated directors will serve on the nine-member Board of the BPO company. Mr. Icahn saluted the company’s split decision by saying “I applaud and respect Ursula Burns [the CEO of Xerox] for doing what she believes shareholders want”. The share price of Xerox’s stock has declined 14% since the beginning of 2016. Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management acquired a new stake of 3.96 million shares of Xerox Corp (NYSE:XRX) during the March quarter.
Follow Xerox Corp (NYSE:XRX)
Follow Xerox Corp (NYSE:XRX)
Carl Icahn Cuts Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) Stake in Half
– Number of shares owned by Carl Icahn as of March 31: 30.07 Million
– Value of Carl Icahn’s holding as of March 31: $561.99 Million
Carl Icahn and his team cut the stake in Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) by a massive 30.72 million shares during the first quarter of 2016, which represents a reduction of 50% quarter-on-quarter. The remaining 30.07 million-share stake was valued at $561.99 million on March 31. A total of 26.32 million shares of the discarded block were sold to the provider of voice recognition solutions under a stock purchase agreement reached in early March. The shares were sold at a price of $19.00 per unit. Nuance funded the transaction with a mix of $375 million cash on hand and a 90-day promissory note with a face value of $125 million. Earlier this month, analysts at Leerink reduced the price target on Nuance Communications to $22 from $23 and reiterated the ‘Outperform’ rating, citing revenue miss for the second quarter of fiscal 2016 that ended March 31 due to revenue erosion and revenue model transition issues. Nuance’s shares are 17% in the red year-to-date. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies LLC has 3.18 million shares of Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) in its equity portfolio as of March 31.
