market folly

At the Delivering Alpha Conference, activist investor Carl Icahn sat down to talk about activist investing and some of his holdings like Herbalife (HLF), Dell (DELL), Netflix (NFLX) and more.

Icahn had the audience in the palm of his hand, talking stocks and making people laugh almost as if he was a stand up comedian.


On Dell (DELL)

On activism: Icahn said good targets are companies that are badly managed. 

Icahn said he wouldn't comment on Dell (DELL) because of the SEC.  Jim Chanos has been short.  Icahn says he's never seen a board as dysfunctional as Dell's.  He argues that Jim Chanos misses the fact that you can put a good board and CEO in and institute change with accountability.  He even went on to say that he has a better record than Chanos.


On Netflix (NFLX)

He thought about selling some, but his son threatened to leave if he did, so that talked him out of it.  He likes Reed Hastings and says it's hard not to like someone who helps make you $100 million in a month or so.


On Herbalife (HLF)

Icahn is still in Herbalife (HLF) and hasn't sold a share.  He said, "I never would have looked at Herbalife if Ackman hadn't come out with that report." 

He thinks HLF's CEO is a good CEO and believes very strongly in the product.

While Icahn vs. Ackman has been well documented, Icahn says he no longer dislikes Ackman because he's made him money on HLF.  And of Ackman's large HLF short position, Icahn says: "It's stupid to take that big of a position anyways."

He also pimped his Twitter account, saying he was going to tweet insights about stocks he was allowed to talk about and he seems to want to boost his follower count so give him a follow: @Carl_C_Icahn


For more from the Delivering Alpha Conference, head to:

- John Paulson on gold, real estate & merger arbitrage

- Nelson Peltz on PepsiCo & Mondelez 

- Best Ideas Panel with Mark Kingdon, Chris Hohn, Jim Chanos & Lee Cooperman

- Larry Robbins on healthcare