Insider Trading: Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital Cut Its $LGF Stake to 3.09%

Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital cut its activist stake in Lions Gate Entertainment Corp (LGF) to 3.09%. Carl Icahn is LGF’s large insider and stakeholder, and his Icahn Capital owned 44.64 million shares in LGF in the second quarter, giving a 32.51% stake of the company. According to Carl Icahn’s Form 4 and 13D filing, Icahn Capital remained 4.25 million shares in LGF as of October 14th, after a public offering of more than 19 million shares at $7 per share. This is Carl Icahn’s second large size sale in LGF after he made a disposal of 22 million shares at the same price on August 30th. So now Carl Icahn retains only 1/10 of his previous quarter’s position. LGF has a mixed path in 2011. The stock fell by more than 10% after Carl Icahn’s previous sale on August 30th. Now LGF is priced at $6.99.

Nine hedge funds owned LGF in the second quarter. Beside Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital’s largest stake, Mark Rachesky’s Mhr Fund Management took the second place and had 40.22 million shares. Other hedge funds had much smaller positions.

Carl Icahn is an American business magnate and legendary corporate raider. He began his career on Wall Street in 1961. In 2007, he founded Icahn Capital LP, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Icahn Enterprises L.P. Carl Icahn recently announced that he will be returning $1.76 Billion back to his investors. He will continue investing his own money. He is an excellent insider to imitate because his moves are usually bigger than an average hedge fund’s and he has to report them more promptly on 13D forms because he usually takes activist positions.

Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. is an entertainment company. According to Yahoo! Finance, the company focuses on “picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, family entertainment, new channel platforms, and digital distribution activities”. It has 2 segments under operation, Motion Pictures segment and Television Production segment. The company sells its products directly to retailers, rental kiosks, and through pay and free television channels and various digital media platforms, as well as through its subsidiary to other international markets. The company was founded in 1986 and is based in Santa Monica, California.