Greenbrier shares tumble
Shares of The Greenbrier Cos. fell nearly 7.5 percent Thursday, a day after billionaire investor Carl Icahn said he will no longer pursue combining the railcar maker with rival American Railcar Industries Inc.
The Lake Oswego-based company’s (NYSE: GBX) shares closed at $21.37 cents per share, a 7.45 percent drop from the close of the market Wednesday.
On Feb. 4, Icahn announced he had acquired 1.5 million shares, or a 9.5 percent stake, in Greenbrier, saying the company’s shares were undervalued. He said at the time he wanted to merge Greenbrier with St. Charles, Mo.-based American Railcar (NASDAQ: ARII), of which he owns 53.7 percent.
But in a late Wednesday filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, Icahn said the merger is no longer being discussed "as a result of certain unresolved issues." Icahn may "at any time dispose of all or some" of his Greenbrier shares, according to the document easy payday loans.
The news led equity analyst Art Hatfield of Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc. to downgrade Greenbrier from "outperform" to "market perform" status. In a client note released Thursday, Hatfield said the merger made sense for American Railcar, which could have bought Greenbrier for $30 to $34 per share.
Shares of Greenbrier opened at $20.34 on Feb. 4 and rose to nearly $29 per share in both mid-February and mid-March.