Countdown to the Next Icahn and/or Ackman Headline

Activist investors Carl Icahn and Bill Ackman are undoubtedly two of the most controversial figures on Wall Street. They are also bitter enemies and have exchanged barbs on more than one occasion. The most public of these exchanges involved Herbalife (NYSE: HLF), a company Ackman calls a pyramid scheme.

These days it's almost impossible to go a day without rumblings from one of the two billionaires. For example, Tuesday morning's headlines were dominated by news Ackman was stepping down from J.C. Penney’s board. The announcement came after the hedge fund manager criticized the company’s board, calling for management changes at the retailer.

Not to be outdone, later that same day Ackman-related drama was eclipsed by a Twitter post from Mr. Icahn that he had taken a large position in Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). Other Icahn related headlines involved PC maker Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), a company founder Michael Dell would have probably already taken private if not for Icahn. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) and Transocean (NYSE: RIG) are a few other notable stocks Icahn is involved in.

The following is a list of the performance of Icahn's investments vs Ackman's year-to-day. The list was compiled by Bloomberg, and is an interesting read ahead of another Icahn and/or Ackman headline tomorrow, if not sooner.

ICAHN:
Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL) 35% gain
Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) 5.5% decline
WebMD Health (Nasdaq: WBMD) 132% gain
Federal-Mogul Corp. (Nasdaq: FDML) 114% gain
Forest Laboratories Inc. (NYSE: FRX) 23% gain
Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) 5.2% gain
Navistar International (NYSE: NAV) 57% gain
Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) 184% gain

ACKMAN :
J. C. Penney (NSYE: JCP) 36% decline
Air Products & Chemicals Inc. (NYSE: APD) 23% gain
Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) 20% gain
Mondelez (Nasdaq: MDLZ) 25% gain
Canadian Pacific (NYSE: CP) 21% gain
The Howard Hughes Corp (NYSE: HHC) 44% gain

Herbalife (NYSE: HLF), which Ackman is short and Icahn is long, is up 101% year-to-date.

Icahn's next headline will likely come via his Twitter account @Carl_C_Icahn, as the hedge fund manger recently claimed it as his new communication vehicle. Now if we can only get Mr. Ackman to join Twitter...

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