Billionaire hedge fund manager Carl Icahn sold off part of his stake in Netflix today, capping off a huge run in Netflix's stock in the past two years and sending the stock down about 10% today.
Sold block of NFLX today. Wish to thank Reed Hastings, Ted Sarandos, NFLX team, and last but not least Kevin Spacey: http://t.co/BRWpKOBfD2
Carl Icahn
@Carl_C_Icahn
Sold block of NFLX today. Wish to thank Reed Hastings, Ted Sarandos, NFLX team, and last but not least Kevin Spacey: http://t.co/BRWpKOBfD2
Icahn disclosed he had purchased about a 10% stake in the company in November last year when the stock was trading at around $60. Since then, the stock has risen more than 400% and is now trading at over $300.
Icahn is still holding onto a 4.5% stake in the company, but decided to lock in more almost $800 million in profit from his sale today.
His sale follows a strong earnings report yesterday, which sent the stock up more than 10% after it beat expectations on the strength of its content and original programming. Netflix's original content plans paid off with a series of Emmy nominations, which helped bolster subscriber numbers, the company said yesterday.
"As a hardened veteran of seven bear markets I have learned that when you are lucky and/or smart enough to have made a total return of 457% in only 14 months it is time to take some of the chips off the table," Icahn said in a statement. "I want to thank Reed Hastings, Ted Sarandos and the rest of the Netflix team for a job well done. And last but not least, I wish to thank Kevin Spacey."
