Carl Icahn & Christian Leone's Latest Moves In Small-Cap Stocks: Rentech Nitrogen Partners & William Lyon Homes

Tracking hedge fund moves can be an easy and useful way to come up with research-backed investment ideas. So, let’s take a look at some of the most relevant transactions in the past couple of days.

Carl Icahn

On Wednesday, billionaire Carl Icahn filed a Schedule 13D with the SEC disclosing a new activist position in small-cap fertilizers company Rentech Nitrogen Partners LP RNF. According to the document, Icahn (and several companies and/or reporting persons affiliated to him) may be deemed beneficial ownership of 23.25 million shares of Rentech Nitrogen Partners LP, representing 59.7 percent of the total shares outstanding.

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Icahn started his large stake in the company after it finalized a merger with CVR Partners LP UAN, of which Icahn indirectly owns a big chunk, via CVR Energy, Inc. CVI – see the filing for further details. It should be noted, however, that Icahn and his affiliates received the 23.25 million shares under the terms of the aforementioned merger agreement.

Shares of Rentech Nitrogen Partners LP are up more than 1.1 percent on Thursday trading.

Christian Leone

Christian Leone’s Luxor Capital Group, for its part, disclosed a big bearish move on Thursday: a 45.5 percent decrease in its exposure to William Lyon Homes WLH. After disposing of 2 million shares at a price of $23.75 per share (under the terms of an Underwriting Agreement), the firm declared holding 2,394,788 shares of Class A Common Stock, which represent 8.7 percent of the company’s shares outstanding.

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Luxor Capital, which was the largest institutional investor in the company as of the end of the first quarter, has now lost its spot to John Paulson’s Paulson & Co., which last acknowledged holding 3,322,666 shares, or roughly 12 percent of the company.

Also betting on this small-cap regional homebuilder is Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors, which held, as of June 30, 2,431,148 shares, representing approximately 8.8 percent of the company’s shares outstanding.

Shares of William Lyon Homes are down more than 2.5 percent on Thursday.`