Shares of Herbalife Ltd. dropped 5.7% in premarket trade Friday, after billionaire investor Bill Ackman said on CNBC that he remained committed to his bearish stance on the nutritional products company. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Ackman nemesis Carl Icahn, who was Herbalife’s largest shareholder with 17 million shares, or 18% of the shares outstanding as of June 30, according to regulatory filings, had recently discussed selling his stake to a group including Ackman. Icahn has owned 17 million Herbalife shares since the first quarter of 2014, when he increased it slightly from 16.97 million shares, filing show. Before that, the last change was to increase it from 16.36 million shares as of March 31, 2013. Ackman said on CNBC that he expressed willingness to buy a small portion of Icahn’s stake, but said he was still held a short position of more than $1 billion in Herbalife. The stock has climbed 16% year to date through Thursday, while the S&P 500 had gained 6.3%.
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