Icahn Enterprises LP’s stock
IEP,
was down 2% on Wednesday, after the investing arm of billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn posted an unexpected fourth-quarter loss. The company had a net loss of $139 million, or 33 cents per unit, for the quarter, narrower than the loss of $255 million, or 74 cents per unit, posted in the year-earlier period. Revenue fell to $2.644 billion from $3.280 billion a year ago. The FactSet consensus was for per-unit earnings of 21 cents and revenue of $2.358 billion. Indicative net asset value was $4.76 billion at year-end, down about $411 million from the third quarter, mostly due to shorts in the investment funds that are used for hedging, and distribution to the company’s unitholders. The company said it’s sticking with its $1 per unit distribution, which it halved in August after the stock was pummeled when short seller Hindenburg Research on May 2 published a scathing article about the company, accusing it of overstating values and paying a dividend it could not afford, among other things.
