Carl Icahn said in a Thursday interview on CNBC that he no longer holds any shares in Apple Inc. (AAPL), adding that he still believes Apple to be “a great company.”
As of year-end 2015, Icahn had held around 45.76 million shares, representing a 0.83% of all Apple outstanding stock. That position—already a decrease by around 7 million shares from his previously-reported position—would have been valued at nearly $4.9 billion at the time, although a recent stock slump tied to fiscal second quarter earnings would have brought the value down to approximately $4.46 billion.
In the CNBC interview, Icahn claimed an overall profit of around $2 billion on his Apple investments.
The famed activist investor first disclosed his Apple holdings in August 2013, saying that the stock was “undervalued,” and pushed for a large share buyback (which Apple, arguably, was already in the process of doing). Icahn would withdraw his formal proposal the following February, with both sides effectively claiming victory.
Apple this week posted fiscal second quarter earnings that missed Wall Street estimates, including its first year-over-year revenue decrease since 2013. The company’s stock was trading at $104.35 before the earnings release, but immediately dropped into the mid-$90’s and has yet to recover.
